The global motherboard market faces a severe downturn in 2026, with industry-wide shipments projected to shrink by 28 percent. Major manufacturers including ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock have all revised their annual forecasts downward significantly. This collective decline reflects broader challenges within the PC DIY sector, driven by supply chain constraints and shifting consumer demand.
ASUS forecasts 10 million shipments, a 33 percent year-over-year decline from its 2025 volume.
ASUS forecasts 10 million motherboard shipments for the year, marking a 33 percent year-over-year decline from its 2025 volume of 15 million units. Gigabyte anticipates 9 million shipments, a 22 percent drop from its 2025 performance of 11.5 million units. MSI expects to ship 8.4 million units, representing a 24 percent decrease from its 2025 total of 11 million units. ASRock faces the steepest contraction, with shipments expected to fall 37 percent to 2.7 million units from a 2025 baseline of 4.3 million units.
The primary drivers behind this market contraction include capacity shortages for AI-driven chips and rising component costs for memory and storage. Hardware iteration cycles have also slowed, reducing the urgency for consumers to upgrade their systems. To offset weakness in the consumer market, major manufacturers are redirecting some production capacity toward AI server components.
Market rumors suggest that the next generation of NVIDIA graphics cards, the RTX 60 series, may not launch until 2028. This extended timeline could further dampen enthusiasm for high-end PC builds, which typically rely on new GPU releases to drive motherboard sales. The prolonged gap between major hardware generations contributes to the current stagnation in the DIY market.
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