Intel delivers fewer notebook processors due to shortage of other components

Intel shipped fewer notebook processors in the past quarter. CEO Pat Gelsinger says this is due to a lack of other components, such as LCDs and Wi-Fi chips. Therefore, manufacturers could make fewer laptops and thus need fewer processors.

In the past quarter, Intel’s notebook division generated five percent less revenue than a year earlier. The company says the decline is due to “notebook ecosystem constraints” and sales of fewer modems. Gelsinger told CNBC that the decline is linked to chip shortages.

Laptop makers don’t have enough parts to finish their computers because of these chip shortages. ‘We call them match sets, where we may have the CPU, but the manufacturer doesn’t have a screen,’ says Gelsinger. Those shortages will remain until 2023, he predicts. ‘We are now in the worst, starting next year it will get a little better every quarter.’ Balance between supply and demand will only be achieved in 2023, the CEO thinks. The fact that the company supplies fewer laptop processors is somewhat striking; In fact, in the previous two quarters, the company was able to ship more notebook processors.

Despite the decline in the number of notebook processors shipped, the overall decline in revenue at Intel’s Client Computing Group was limited. Intel saw a twenty percent increase in turnover in desktop processors, as a result of which the turnover of the laptop and desktop division was ‘only’ two percent lower than a year earlier. There would be continued high demand for desktop processors and Intel was also able to increase the average selling price of processors. Intel’s Client Computing Group’s revenue was $9.7 billion.

The company also suffered from the delivery problems of external components at Intel’s data center division. Nevertheless, the division’s turnover rose by ten percent to $6.5 billion. According to the company, this growth is due to a strong recovery at large companies and governments, who would like to have their own servers on their own locations more often. Intel’s total quarterly revenue came in at $18.1 billion, five percent more than a year earlier.