The PC Build Market Is Freezing — and AI Is the Reason
A global shortage of memory, CPUs, and GPUs driven by AI data center demand is forcing the four biggest motherboard makers to slash 2026 shipment targets by up to 37%.
If you’ve been holding off on a PC upgrade, you’re not alone. The component shortage triggered by the AI infrastructure buildout has now reached the motherboard market — the foundation of every desktop PC build. According to a report from Taiwanese industry publication Digitimes, all four major motherboard manufacturers — Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock — have revised their 2026 shipment targets downward by 22% to 37%.
The root cause is the same across the board: AI data centers are consuming memory, processors, and power delivery components at a pace the consumer market simply cannot compete with. As a result, DDR5 memory, storage drives, and even certain CPUs have become harder to source at normal prices — and without affordable components, there’s little reason to build a new PC or buy a new motherboard.
The Digitimes report describes the situation as a “collapse” — worse than previous financial downturns and the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to supply chain sources. Explore the full breakdown below.
The Scale of the Decline
2026 projected figures vs 2025 actuals — across all four major manufacturers.
Who’s Taking the Biggest Hit?
Scroll or tap a row to see the full picture. Drop % reflects projected full-year 2026 vs actual 2025.
| Manufacturer | 2025 Shipped | 2026 Target | Drop | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Asus
|
15.0M | ~10M | −33% | |
|
Gigabyte
|
11.5M | 8–9M | −22% | |
|
MSI
|
11.0M | 8.4M | −24% | |
|
ASRock
|
4.3M | 2.7M | −37% |
Source: Tom’s Hardware via Digitimes
Three Factors Choking the DIY PC Market
Tap each cause to expand the full context. All three are happening at the same time.
A Timeline of the Crisis
The motherboard slump didn’t happen overnight. Here’s the sequence of events.
Consumer Down, AI Server Up
The same force that cut consumer sales is padding revenue from a different direction. Asus, Gigabyte, and ASRock have all shifted capacity toward AI server motherboards — an area in high demand for 2026 data centre builds.
The Digitimes report covered above examined the combined effects of AI-driven memory shortages, chipmaker production shifts toward AI processors, and a pause in major consumer GPU updates on the motherboard market across 2025 and 2026. The data discussed points to a broader contraction in DIY PC activity, with the four major Taiwanese manufacturers — Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock — having revised their full-year 2026 shipment targets downward by 22% to 37%.
For PC builders considering a new build, motherboard pricing at retail may reflect discounting as vendors move existing inventory. The situation across memory, GPU, and CPU supply chains — covered in detail in our reporting on the Snapdragon X2 Elite and ARM platform shifts and Nvidia’s Vera Rubin AI architecture — was discussed across various supply chain and manufacturer briefings throughout the period examined.
