Intel will have depleted its CPU inventory in the next few months, running out of processors to sell, as demand right now is reportedly higher than anticipated.
Intel CFO David Zinsner spoke with Barron's after its Q3 2025 earnings call, saying that the company is facing a "chip supply" shortage, for both consumer and data center processors. This isn't expected to stop and will continue rolling into Q1 2026, where by then, "chip inventories" will have been depleted -- zilch, nada, gone -- which is a major concern.
Popular Now: Xbox users can use last-gen Xbox One consoles to verify Xbox Series discs for disc-to-digital conversionFirstly, it means Intel is somehow selling every single processor it is having made (by TSMC) and soon in-house (Intel 18A). Secondly, it means that even with AMD kicking its ass on every front, somehow, Intel is selling its processors so fast, it will run out of inventory in the months ahead. It all feels very strange to me, as there are only a handful of Intel products that I can see consumers willingly buying over an AMD processor (like the Core Ultra 9 285K in some scenarios, even then, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D kicks its ass in gaming).
Intel has been pushing harder and harder into the server business after losing historic market share to AMD and its EPYC and Ryzen Threadripper PRO chips, but it means that the consumer desktop processor market is taking a back seat... which makes more sense than every single CPU that Intel has in its inventory being sold and inside of PCs across the planet.
Intel CFO David Zinsner spoke with Barron's Tae Kim, where he said that Q1 2026 will be the "most challenging" for meeting chip demand, as Intel's chip inventories will have been depleted by then. Intel sees companies upgrading computers to move to the latest version of Windows 11 -- as Windows 10 is shutting its doors -- while enterprises and cloud computing companies upgrading servers quicker than we can blink.
