AI boom is crushing PC motherboard sales 08 May 2026

The PC motherboard market is witnessing a major downturn, with sales dropping by a staggering 28%. This decline is mainly due to the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips and the resulting supply shortages.

Major manufacturers like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock are all feeling the pinch of this trend in the tech industry.

ASUS expects a major drop in sales Sales projection

ASUS, a leading player in the motherboard market, is expecting its sales to take a hit this year.

The company sold 15 million motherboards in 2025 but has only shipped just over five million units in H1 2026.

It now will have to push hard to even move 10 million units by the end of this year, which would be a 33% drop from last year's figures.

Gigabyte and MSI also anticipate lower sales Market adjustment

Gigabyte and MSI, two other major players in the motherboard market, have also revised their sales forecasts for 2026.

Last year, Gigabyte sold 11.5 million motherboards while MSI sold 11 million units.

However, both companies now expect lower sales this year with Gigabyte expecting to sell nine million units (a 22% drop) and MSI expecting an even bigger contraction of up to 24%.

ASRock will likely face the biggest hit Market impact

Among the big four motherboard manufacturers, ASRock is expected to face the biggest hit.

Its shipments are expected to fall by a whopping 37% from 4.3 million units in 2025 to just 2.7 million by year-end.

This drastic decline highlights how much these companies are affected by AI's rising demand for memory, storage, and processors.

Rising component prices are also affecting PC upgrades Price surge

The rising demand for AI has also led to a spike in prices of major PC components such as memory modules and storage drives.

The shortages caused by their massive purchases have forced PC builders and enthusiasts to compete over a limited supply of these components, driving up overall costs.

This trend is further discouraging users from upgrading their PCs or building new ones from scratch.

Shift toward AI servers Market challenges

The current market conditions are further complicated by AMD's continued use of the AM5 socket for its latest processors, Intel's Nova Lake not being available until later this year, and NVIDIA not releasing a refreshed RTX 50 Super series this year.

All these factors are dissuading PC builders from upgrading their systems.

However, companies like ASUS, Gigabyte, and ASRock have shifted some of their production toward AI servers to capitalize on hyperscalers' investments in data centers.