Motherboard sales 'collapse' by more than 25% as chipmakers strangle enthusiast PC market to build more AI chips — Asus projected to sell 5 million fewer boards in 2025, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock also

Motherboard sales are collapsing in 2026, with the four major manufacturers — Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock — collectively facing a ~28% market contraction. The primary driver is AI infrastructure demand pulling chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD away from consumer chip production, causing shortages and price increases across memory, storage, and CPUs. Asus is projected to sell 33% fewer boards year-on-year, while ASRock faces the steepest drop at 37%. The lack of compelling new CPU socket transitions and no Nvidia RTX 50 Super refresh are further discouraging upgrades. Some manufacturers are offsetting losses by pivoting to AI server production.