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Intel CFO David Zinsner says memory shortages will persist through this year and likely next year
Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 10:49 PM
Intel's Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner indicated that memory supply shortages are expected to persist throughout the current year and likely into the following year, countering market expectations of a typical cyclical downturn.
Context
Intel CFO David Zinsner has warned that industry-wide memory shortages for DRAM and NAND will persist throughout 2026 and likely into 2027. This supply strain is primarily driven by the massive reallocation of wafer capacity toward High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to support AI infrastructure, which requires a 3-to-1 trade ratio against standard DDR5 production. During Intel's Q4 2025 earnings call, the company noted that rising component pricing and substrate tightness could limit revenue opportunities in the client market despite a recovery in CPU demand.
The shortage comes at a critical time as Intel and AMD report a spike in CPU interest driven by agentic AI. While Intel reported Q4 2025 revenue of $13.7 billion and beat EPS expectations at $0.15, management flagged near-term margin compression for Q1 2026. With Samsung reportedly only able to fulfill 70% of current DRAM orders, the structural imbalance is expected to keep prices high for PCs and enterprise servers for the next several quarters.
Sources (10)
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