Exclusive-Intel, AMD notify customers in China of lengthy waits for CPUs

Major American semiconductor manufacturers Intel and AMD have officially notified their Chinese clients of significant supply shortages for server central processing units (CPUs) as of early February 2026, amid a global surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure investment. The delays, which have hit major technology hubs in Beijing and beyond, are reportedly causing lead times to stretch up to six months for specific Intel Xeon processors and up to ten weeks for some AMD products. This supply crunch is primarily driven by the frantic industry-wide rush to build AI capabilities, which has diverted manufacturing resources and created a massive backlog of unfulfilled orders for traditional compute hardware. In China, a critical market that represents over 20% of Intel's global revenue, the shortage has already triggered a price hike of more than 10% for server chips. Intel has begun rationing deliveries of its fourth- and fifth-generation Xeon CPUs to manage a substantial backlog, while AMD faces similar constraints as its manufacturing partner, TSMC, prioritizes high-margin AI specific chips over standard CPUs. Domestic tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent are among the high-profile clients caught in this bottleneck, which threatens to slow the expansion of cloud computing and advanced data centers across the region. Industry analysts point to a "perfect storm" of factors contributing to the crisis beyond just high demand. Intel continues to face internal manufacturing yield challenges, while the global shortage of memory chips has led some distributors to hoard CPUs in anticipation of rising costs. Furthermore, the emergence of "agentic AI"—advanced systems that perform complex, multi-step operations—has significantly increased the processing power required from traditional CPUs compared to simpler chatbots. While Intel expects supply to improve throughout 2026, the current first-quarter projections suggest inventory levels will hit historic lows before any meaningful recovery occurs.