Management stated that the company missed out on AI profits because it was too busy producing chips for ordinary PCs.
Intel has officially announced a change of course: production capacities are being urgently redistributed from consumer lines to Xeon server processors. The company admitted that last quarter they made a mistake by spending resources to saturate the laptop and desktop markets while the primary demand was in the AI and data center sectors.
Intel is deprioritizing budget processors. Now, the focus in the consumer segment will remain only on mid-range and high-end models (Core i5/i7/i9), while the freed-up capacities will be given to orders from hyperscalers.
For the average user, this means that building an inexpensive Intel-based PC in early 2026 may become more difficult. A shortage of cheap chips combined with rising memory prices is likely to increase the cost of Intel builds.
