Investment firm Wedbush has released a report suggesting that due to the persistent supply-demand imbalance in the server CPU market, Intel retains room to implement further price increases for its processors this quarter without significantly dampening market demand.

Intel has recently confirmed official price increases for a range of consumer and server CPUs, primarily affecting the Core Ultra 200S Plus consumer processors and the Xeon 6 and Xeon 8000 series server processors. The price hikes for consumer chips range from $30 to $50, while the increases for data center products can reach hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Intel stated that the adjustments are based on evolving market dynamics and ongoing monitoring of supply chains and associated costs.

In the report, Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson noted that given the continued shortage of server CPUs, particularly certain models, he believes Intel still has pricing power without impacting demand. However, he also pointed out that a key question remains whether original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are paying these higher prices, or if Intel has only adjusted prices for distribution and retail channels, which constitute a much smaller portion of its overall business.

Catalyzed by surging demand for data center server CPUs and coupled with progress in its chip foundry business, Intel, which faced significant challenges in recent years, has regained investor favor. Its stock price has risen nearly 200% year-to-date. Analysts believe that the computing power demand driven by artificial intelligence is altering the long-standing market logic where CPU prices traditionally only decreased over time.