GPU Market Headed for a Fall?

By George Leopold, EETimes (June 10, 2021)

The rollercoaster ride that is the graphics chip market is likely to see an abrupt end to pandemic-driven surge demand driven by seasonal factors, a supply chain “hangover” and rampant speculation.

The volatility also extends to the graphics add-in board (AIB) attach rate for PCs, signaling that last year’s personal computer boom is unsustainable.

“The risk is that semiconductor suppliers will be lured into overreaction and believe that suddenly hundreds of millions of new users have appeared and the demand will stay high,” said analyst Jon Peddie. “That’s not only not realistic, it’s also not true—where are they coming from—not this planet?”

Peddie predicts the graphics chip market will return to some semblance of normalcy as early as the end of the year. His worry is that GPU vendors will repeat mistakes made during a similar boom-bust cycle in 2018 that left vendors like market leader Nvidia holding the bag with excess inventory.

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