Even with PC shipment forecast to drop next year, PC makers are finding it hard to get enough printed circuit board (PCB) units to meet today's demand. This is causing an overall shortage in important PC components including motherboards and graphics cards, which directly affects PC's availability and price. Therefore, consumers should expect longer waiting time and increased price for these necessary items in the near future.
AI server demand drives 30-month wait times and 12x raw material cost jumps
The shortage issue is mainly attributed to a large shift of manufacturing resources to build AI servers. AI servers are taking a huge chunk of PCB production resource. This has caused a shortage of supply for consumer electronics hardware products, which then spreads out into the entire PC industry. It's so bad that industry sources are even predicting the issue to continue until 2030.
For certain specific types of PCBs, the order to delivery time is so long it's up to 30 months now. It's so bad because of the current AI infrastructure fever, which pushes server board production to the top of the priority list and leaves consumer electronic boards behind. This is a problem for the entire industry, from raw material procurement to the final assembly.
Meanwhile, prices for important raw material are going up too. Namely, the price for Copper Clad Laminate (CCL) has increased by 12 times since July, according to anonymous Taiwanese manufacturers. This inflation in raw material price further affects component price, causing a rising trend of motherboard and GPU price. All these issues form a kind of hardship for both manufacturers and consumers.
This clearly points to an industry shift happening in the hardware world, with AI demanding changing the way we build up the supply chain for traditional computing components. Even though the total volume of PC shipment may vary, the PCB shortage problem is an important problem that needs to be addressed. Hardware industry stakeholders will have to deal with the long lead times and rising price for the near future.
Thirty months is absurd. I just need a board for my work station and now I am paying double.
The AI servers are eating all the copper clad laminate and leaving us with nothing for our gaming rigs 🤔
Is the price hike going to hit the budget B650 boards or just the expensive X670 models?
It affects the whole stack. Even entry level boards use significant copper layers for power delivery and signal integrity. The CCL cost jump impacts everything.
The 12x price increase on CCL seems exaggerated unless you look at specific high frequency grades used for servers.
I will keep using my old motherboard until it dies. I am not paying premium for legacy parts.
just wait until 2030 to build a pc 💀