During Intel’s latest earnings call, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said that demand for its budget-focused Wildcat Lake chips “is outstripping supply.” According to CFO David Zinsner, the chips are now sold out. Zinsner said Intel has “seen significant growth in Wildcat Lake. It’s coming exactly at the right time because it’s cost-optimized and we’re seeing a lot of focus in that regard.”
As shortages of RAM and other components have driven up PC prices over recent months, Intel’s Wildcat Lake chips have been appearing in new lower-cost Windows laptops on par with the MacBook Neo, like the new Dell XPS 13 or the HP Omnibook 5 14. Wildcat Lake laptops like these have budget-friendly starting prices, but often with just 8GB of RAM, which Windows laptops can struggle to get by on.
Intel doesn’t expect the memory shortage to improve any time soon. Zinsner responded to a question about memory supply, saying, “Make no mistake, we are not optimistic about next year in terms of memory.” He added, “we’ll, you know, have to see in ‘28 whether things improve, but our expectation is that it does not improve in ‘27.” That’s more optimistic than SK Hynix’s prediction that the RAM shortage will drag on through 2030.
Tan also acknowledged the PC demand slowdown, saying, “The industry continues to navigate one of the most significant supply shortages in the [sic] history, driven by the unprecedented demand for super intelligence,” referring to AI. Zinsner went on to respond to a question during the earnings call, saying, “We do think the PC is going to go through a renaissance despite this.”