Q3 global PC shipments fall over 20% as AI data-center demand squeezes memory supply
Worldwide PC shipments fell more than 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, according to new figures from IDC and Omdia. IDC estimated a 20.1% annual decline to 62.7 million units, also down 9.1% from the second quarter, while Omdia put combined desktop, notebook and workstation shipments at 58.1 million units, down 21.2% year over year, with desktops off 23.5% and notebooks 20.6%. Both firms attributed the drop to AI data-center expansion absorbing DRAM and SSD supply: Omdia said memory and storage now account for close to 40% of PC costs, up from about 15%, with prices more than quadrupling, while CPUs, GPUs and other ICs also remain short. Lenovo stayed first at 14.9 million units (-22.6%), HP fell the most at 10.3 million (-30.9%), Dell shipped 7.6 million (-25%), Apple 5.9 million (-11.3%, with share rising to 9.5%) and Asus 5.5 million (-8.6%). Omdia expects another 24% year-over-year decline in Q4 and a further 7% drop across 2027.
AI data centers' appetite for memory is now visibly raising costs for consumer PCs, and if Omdia's forecast holds, this looks less like a one-quarter dip than the start of a new PC downcycle.