Intel May Increase Prices of Its Core CPUs, Report Suggests
According to reports, Intel will increase the prices of its existing CPU lineup in order to generate funds for semiconductor development and a company-wide restructuring.
The information was revealed by the forum moderator “Pockerclock” to the reputable German site PCGamesHardware. Two German vendors were contacted by the source, and they confirmed an Intel letter mentioning the price increase. While Intel’s move was certainly out of the blue, it may have been subject to geographical restrictions that we’ll get into below.
Price Rise May Hurt Intel’s Competition
According to the information provided in the letter, Intel has informed merchants that the price rise will be applied to all in-stock or on-sale CPUs. This encompasses the current and upcoming Alder Lake processor families. In addition, the upcoming Meteor Lake SKUs will experience the same price rise when they are released under the “Core Ultra” label in the near future.
Intel has previously increased the prices of all of its processors and components by the same amount, so this increase is not unexpected. The price increases varied from the low single digits to the high 20s.
Intel has not provided details on this price hike’s magnitude or an official explanation. PCGamesHardware suggests, however, that this may have something to do with Intel’s plans to build semiconductor plants around the world, particularly in Eastern Germany.
Primary Reason for Expected Price Hike
As we’ve mentioned before, Intel is attempting to build a €17 billion chip plant in Magdeburg, Eastern Germany, but the project is running into problems due primarily to a lack of funding. The development of the facility has been greatly hampered by the local government’s refusal to provide any extra subsidies for the project. Due to rising energy and construction expenses, Intel is requesting €10 billion in subsidies for its manufacturing facilities despite being qualified for only €6.8 billion. The choice may initially be restricted to the German market due to the price increase across all Intel CPU devices.
Intel’s plan to reorganize the corporation has begun to take effect, with the NUC product line becoming the first to be phased out. Since it is anticipated that existing retail units will receive a price jump immediately, the consequences of the price increase could be felt very quickly. The letter further confirms that Intel’s ongoing and planned GPU product launches will not be impacted by the decision.
Although Intel has not officially verified the decision, we find this report to be quite credible. We calculated that the price increase might solely affect the German market, but this hasn’t been confirmed. We will share something new with our readers as soon as an official statement is released.
