Intel is reportedly planning new CPU price hikes come October 2026, adding to the recent string of rises. The company is also expected to discontinue low-margin products to improve profitability.
According to Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes, Intel is set to raise PC CPU prices by another 10%, in order to improve its gross margin without needing additional market share. The company’s CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, is reportedly focusing heavily on the CPU business, conducting a comprehensive review of pricing, gross margins, product portfolios, and manufacturing costs.
This reportedly includes implementing aggressive restructuring to address low efficiency and excessive bureaucracy. For instance, the report indicates that Intel’s management layers were cut from 12 down to six, and that the total workforce has been trimmed to around 75,000 employees.
Margin optimisation aside, these price hikes are also likely to be a reflection of recent cost surges in other PC components, from memory to PCBs, which accumulate, pushing up the total system cost. While PC makers could temporarily absorb some of these shocks to an extent, thanks to stock of older low-cost inventory, in 2027 a new wave of high-cost components will enter production.
This pressure is likely to push up retail pricing further, stifling demand. As a result, DigiTimes’ industry sources noted that global PC shipments could drop from 260 million units in 2026 to 250 million units in 2027, meaning that Intel’s past strategy of cutting prices to secure market share is less viable. By increasing CPU prices, Intel aims to ensure solid gross margins despite the shipment decline.
In parallel with these price increases, Intel is also expected to end products targeting industrial PCs (IPCs), the Internet of Things (IoT), and embedded systems if their gross margins remain too low. Needless to say, abandoning these segments will create enticing opportunities for Arm, MediaTek, and Qualcomm to step in. All of this indicates that Intel may no longer be focusing on maintaining platform completeness to satisfy all its clients’ demands.
