Intel, AMD may have been hit by same ‘crises’ flagged by Apple CEO Tim Cook

Intel and AMD have reportedly notified Chinese customers of significant supply shortages for server CPUs, with Intel warning that delivery lead times have increased to as long as six months.

The “crises” of supply chain instability was recently highlighted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, clarifying that it’s not the memory shortage due to high prices but constraint are due to unavailability advanced nodes on which its M and A series chips are built.According to a report by news agency Reuters, the constraints are a direct result of the global increase in demand for components for Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

While much of the focus has been on AI-specific GPUs, the massive shift toward “agentic AI” has placed a strain on the traditional CPUs.

Intel warns of price hike

The report mentions that in China, a market that accounts for more than 20% of Intel’s total revenue, the shortage is hitting the fourth- and fifth-generation Xeon processors hard. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said that Intel is now rationing deliveries to manage a substantial backlog of unfulfilled orders.

The scarcity has already triggered a price hike, with Intel server products in China generally rising by more than 10%. “Inventory is at its lowest level in Q1,” said Intel, adding that it is “addressing the issue aggressively” and expects improvements throughout the remainder of 2026.

AMD feels the squeeze via TSMC

AMD is also feeling the pressure, and has informed clients of constraints that have pushed lead times out to eight to 10 weeks. AMD’s bottleneck is tied to its partnership with TSMC, which is also the chip manufacturer of Apple and Nvidia. The Taiwanese foundry giant has prioritised high-margin AI chip manufacturing, leaving limited capacity for the standard CPUs that AMD designs.“We remain confident in our ability to meet customer demand globally based on our strong supplier agreements,” the company stated.