Intel · AMD · China · ARM · Tom's Hardware
Intel and AMD sign long-term server CPU pacts with Chinese customers as prices jump over 40%, report asserts
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◎ Multiple-sources
Intel and AMD are signing longer-term purchase commitments with Chinese server customers for data center processors, according to a new that cites two people familiar with the talks.
Key facts
- Prices for some server CPU products in China have climbed more than 40% since the start of the year and are still rising by over 10% month-on-month in some cases, one of the people said
- By late March, server makers told Nikkei Asia that average CPU lead times had blown out from one to two weeks to eight to 12 weeks
- Agentic AI workloads are driving much of the demand, as inference and orchestration tasks pull server CPU-to-GPU ratios back toward parity
- Reuters first reported in February that Intel had warned Chinese customers of lead times stretching to six months on some server CPUs, with AMD quoting eight to 10 weeks
Summary
Ryzen to the top: How AMD innovated in the gaming CPU market. Some customers have discussed commitments running two years or longer, one of the people told Reuters, with the deals covering unit volumes only, which leaves Chinese cloud providers and internet companies fully exposed to a market that has already added 40% to some CPU prices in under seven months. Intel said in March that it was pursuing long-term agreements with potential customers as server CPU demand spiked, with CEO Lip-Bu Tan telling analysts on the company's April earnings call that demand "continues to run ahead of supply," singling out Xeon server parts.