Intel plans to raise PC CPU prices by approximately 10 percent on October 5, 2026, marking the third increase since late 2025, according to supply chain sources. The company previously implemented roughly 10 percent hikes in the first quarter and again in July for select consumer and server-grade CPUs, with those adjustments ranging from tens to over one thousand dollars.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan is actively reviewing Intel's Small Core product line, with some products entering the End of Life phase. The company's review criteria now center entirely on profit contribution: products with gross margins deemed insufficient will face discontinuation.
This reverses Intel's historical approach of maintaining a broad product portfolio to ensure platform integrity and serve diverse customers. The new strategy prioritizes margin over market coverage.
The cuts will primarily affect long-lifecycle markets—industrial PCs, Internet of Things devices and embedded systems—where customers prioritize cost, power consumption, delivery time and platform stability over cutting-edge performance. These segments command lower gross margins than high-end consumer and server CPUs.
Global PC shipments are projected to reach approximately 260 million units in 2026, declining to roughly 250 million in 2027, as component price increases in memory and PCBs add cost pressure to end products.
If Intel recaptures nearly 200 million CPU shipments in a 250 million-unit market, its PC CPU market share could rebound to approximately 78 percent. Combined with higher average selling prices, this would substantially improve PC CPU profitability. The withdrawal from industrial and embedded segments, however, creates an opening for Arm-based competitors such as MediaTek and Qualcomm to capture price-sensitive customers Intel no longer wants to serve.
