Global PC shipments fell more than 20 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, posting the steepest decline since the first quarter of 2023. Memory prices have surged as AI data centres expand. PC makers also built up inventory in advance, while consumers faced higher costs, compounding the impact.

According to IT outlet Ars Technica, market researcher IDC said global PC shipments in the third quarter fell 20.1 percent to 62.7 million units from 78.5 million a year earlier. Shipments usually rise in the third quarter versus the second, but they fell instead.

Another market researcher, Omdia, reported similar results. Third-quarter PC shipments including laptops, desktops and workstations fell 21.2 percent year-on-year to 58.1 million units. Desktop shipments fell 23.5 percent to 11.7 million, while laptops dropped 20.6 percent to 46.4 million.

Rising memory prices and inventory burdens are the main causes of the market slump. PC makers and distributors secured products early to brace for price increases in the first half, but in the third quarter higher prices curbed consumer demand and made it harder to draw down inventories.

Demand growth for high bandwidth memory, or HBM, and DRAM for AI servers is squeezing supplies of semiconductors for consumers. According to Omdia, the share of DRAM and SSDs in PC manufacturing costs rose to nearly 40 percent from about 15 percent. Prices of memory and storage devices rose more than fourfold.

Component supply shortages are also spreading. Supply constraints are widening beyond memory to processors, graphics cards and other integrated circuits, increasing manufacturers' burdens in production and inventory management.

IDC forecast PC prices could fall temporarily due to promotional events, but said it would be difficult for them to return to last year's levels. Omdia projected fourth-quarter shipments would fall 24 percent from a year earlier and that full-year shipments in 2027 would drop 7 percent.

Concerns are growing that a parts supply imbalance triggered by the growth of the AI industry could lead to a prolonged slump in the global PC market.