Nvidia’s announcement of a new PC chip set markets ablaze on Monday. Chip stocks, led by Intel and Qualcomm, fell sharply, while PC stocks, led by Dell Technologies and HP Inc. jumped. Everyone should take a deep breath.
A new kind of PC, even one armed with an Nvidia chip, will be an uphill climb. Amid a memory shortage, it could hardly be a worse moment to be launching a new PC platform. The history is tough too: a 15-year project of expanding Windows PCs beyond Intel and Advanced Micro Devices has seen little payoff.
Steep memory price hikes are hurting sales of all kinds of consumer electronics, nowhere more so than in PCs. Market research firms and PC makers alike expect unit sales to shrink by almost 20% in the second half of this year, with most of the damage coming in low-price tiers. Among other mitigation efforts, manufacturers are raising prices.