Dell Turning to AMD Amid Intel Chip Shortage

Yahoo is reporting that Dell is increasingly looking to AMD in response to Intel’s chip shortages.

Intel has experienced significant supply issues in 2019, even penning an open letter to customers and partners apologizing for the chip shortages. In the letter, executive vice president Michelle Johnston Holthaus wrote:

“I’d like to acknowledge and sincerely apologize for the impact recent PC CPU shipment delays are having on your business and to thank you for your continued partnership. I also want to update you on our actions and investments to improve supply-demand balance and support you with performance-leading Intel products. Despite our best efforts, we have not yet resolved this challenge.”

It appears that at least one major customer is not waiting for the challenge to be resolved. According to Yahoo, Dell is looking to source chips from AMD to make up for Intel’s shortages.

“We are evaluating AMD chips,” Tom Sweet, Dell’s CFO, said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade in response to a question about what the company planned to do in view of Intel’s struggles.

The move is particularly significant, as Dell has predominantly used Intel’s chips for 35 years. That focused reliance on the chip giant, however, is largely to blame for Dell’s 6 percent decline in consumer PCs during its most recent quarter.

With Intel not expected to have their supply issues resolved until the second half of 2020, Dell appears to be adopting the philosophy ‘don’t have all your eggs in one basket.’