AMD (AMD.US) reportedly increases prices for its entire chip lineup by 10%! TSMC's rising wafer foundry costs identified as main reason

According to Golden Ten Data, AMD (AMD.US) shares rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading on Friday, continuing a three-day upward streak. Previous unconfirmed reports indicated that the chip manufacturer has notified clients it will raise prices on its entire chip product line by 10% starting in the fourth quarter.

The price increase is reportedly related to higher manufacturing costs at TSMC (TSM.US). The vast majority of AMD chips are manufactured by TSMC. Due to continually rising manufacturing costs, TSMC has informed its clients that it will increase foundry prices by about 10%. As wafer costs directly squeeze product gross margins, AMD has chosen to pass the cost pressure downstream.

The report also states that AMD's price increase will affect multiple product categories, including AI accelerator chips, consumer-grade graphics processing units (GPUs), and motherboard chipsets. Although the report does not specifically mention AMD's Ryzen CPUs, these CPUs are also highly dependent on TSMC's foundry services, so this round of price hikes may also extend to consumer-grade processors.

It is worth noting that earlier reports this month indicated that Intel (INTC.US) plans to raise PC CPU prices by about 10% again on October 5, 2026. This would mark Intel's third round of price hikes since the end of 2025—raising prices by about 10% in the first quarter of 2026, with another increase in July on certain consumer and server-grade CPUs, with price hikes ranging from several dozen to over one thousand dollars.

Supply chain sources pointed out that the direct cause of Intel's ongoing price increases is the overall rise in supply chain costs and sustained strong demand for certain products—prices for key components such as memory and PCB materials have surged, which has significantly squeezed profit margins across the PC supply chain. Although the industry generally expects a slight decline in the global PC market in 2027, Intel's move to raise prices against the trend suggests its strategic focus has shifted from "volume for price" to "profit for price," which may help restore the profitability of its PC CPU business.