Global motherboard sales have fallen by more than 25% as chipmakers divert production capacity toward artificial intelligence chips [1].
This shift threatens the enthusiast PC market by creating critical shortages of essential components. As silicon wafers are repurposed for AI hardware, the resulting scarcity of DRAM and other parts drives up prices, making new custom PC builds prohibitively expensive for many consumers.
The downturn is hitting the industry's largest players. Combined sales for the four biggest motherboard manufacturers, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock, are expected to fall by at least 28% in 2026 [2]. This represents a total industry loss of 11.7 million units [2].
Individual company projections show a significant impact on volume. ASUS is projected to sell five million fewer boards in 2025 [1]. Other major makers, including Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock, are also expected to see reduced sales numbers as the supply chain tightens.
The crisis is fueled by a global memory shortage. Chipmakers are prioritizing high-margin AI chips over the components needed for standard consumer motherboards. This diversion of resources has created a bottleneck that strangles the enthusiast market, leaving manufacturers unable to meet demand or maintain previous sales volumes [1], [3].
Industry analysts said the trend reflects a broader reallocation of resources within the semiconductor ecosystem. While AI infrastructure grows, the hardware necessary for personal computing is seeing a reduction in available silicon, leading to the current collapse in sales [1], [2].
“Motherboard sales have fallen by more than 25% as chipmakers divert production capacity toward artificial intelligence chips.”
The collapse in motherboard sales signals a pivot in the semiconductor industry where the profitability of AI infrastructure outweighs the traditional consumer PC market. By diverting silicon capacity to AI, chipmakers are effectively throttling the growth of the enthusiast PC sector, suggesting that high-end custom computing may become a niche luxury as supply chains prioritize corporate AI scaling.
