- Intel’s rumored to be hiking the price of some older laptop CPUs
- Raptor Lake chips are going up by 10%, we’re told
- This could be yet more pressure on laptop makers, given recent RAM price rises, all making notebooks more expensive
Laptop prices may increase in the near future, and this time the trouble may be related to Intel‘s CPUs, according to new rumors.
As flagged by Jukan on X, DigiTimes reports that according to sources in the supply chain in Asia, Intel is planning to hike the price of its Raptor Lake processors for laptops by just over 10% in Q4 2025. That may not sound earth-shattering, but it would heap on the misery for notebook-makers who are already facing increased costs for other components.
Apparently, one of the main reasons for this Raptor Lake hike is the “lackluster performance of AI PCs” – but with all this we need to bear in mind that DigiTimes isn’t always the most reliable source (though the site does get things right some of the time), and also translation issues around the article too.
What’s happening, we’re told, is that new AI PCs – Copilot+ laptops – aren’t selling as well as expected, and so demand for Lunar Lake (Intel CPUs with beefy NPUs for these devices) hasn’t been as strong as anticipated.
As a result, there’s been more demand for older Raptor Lake mobile chips – even though these are three-year-old processors now – and so Intel is struggling to meet those needs from notebook manufacturers. Due to that, the company is going to be asking more for these chips – as the report notes: “Raptor Lake has been in short supply since mid-year, and supply remains tight.”
The DigiTimes reporter contacted Intel about this chatter of price hikes, but Team Blue said it wouldn’t comment at this time.
Thin supply of Raptor Lake chips remains a “major concern” for notebook makers, and one of the top five vendors is “experiencing significant supply shortages” the report further claims, without naming that manufacturer.
Analysis: Bleak Friday
OK, before we go overboard with the pessimism, we need to take this single report with a suitably hefty dose of seasoning. Furthermore, it’s obviously true that Raptor Lake chips are not the whole laptop market – there are many other Intel CPUs around, and of course AMD-powered notebooks as well.
Still, clearly Raptor Lake remains a popular choice for traditional notebooks – meaning non-AI PCs – and some of the best gaming laptops too, so if this price hike is indeed real, the trouble is it’s yet another pressure on laptop manufacturers. Don’t forget that these vendors are also facing rising RAM prices in Q4, and upward movement with SSD pricing as well – an unfortunate trio of key components that could add up to a nasty headache when trying to price their products.
As the DigiTimes report points out, this is a difficult situation for PC makers who are now trying to plan for Black Friday sales – tempting prices are going to be difficult to come by with the component market forces currently in place pushing up costs for laptop makers.
It’s also interesting to see the report’s observation that AI PCs are not firing on all cylinders as analysts had expected by now – and that sales remain lukewarm, with consumers not tempted by these devices (or indeed businesses to an extent). That makes some sense to me – I know I’m not particularly drawn to buy a Copilot+ PC, and though I wouldn’t rule out the idea, I certainly wouldn’t want to pay a premium for such a device. It’s clear enough that the exclusive AI features that Copilot+ machines offer might be moderately compelling in a few cases, but they’re mostly trimmings that I’m not overly fussed about.
All that said, analyst firms and some notebook-makers are singing a different tune on AI PC sales – although a lot of the thrust still remains focused on how successful these devices will be in the future.
Indeed, Windows 10’s End of Life – which happens next month – may help fire up AI PC sales a bit more, seeing as that will mean a good number of new Windows 11 devices are going to be bought to replace Windows 10 PCs. However, as the report observes, that’s likely to buoy the enterprise market, but not necessarily consumers – and don’t forget, people can now sign up for an extra year of support for Windows 10 for free.
Right now, there’s an air of concern around weak PC sales in general, which is worsened by fears that with rising component costs, Black Friday deals on laptops may not be quite as compelling as usual – and so notebook makers may struggle to capitalize on this normally booming time for sales.
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