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Chipflation Rising: AMD Zen 6, HBM Price Surge & Nvidia's Gaming GPU Gap
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
AMD confirms Zen 6 goes server-only for 12+ months, HBM4 prices are forecast to double by 2027, and Nvidia has cancelled its RTX 5080 Super — redirecting memory to AI products. Today's briefing maps the structural forces reshaping the AI hardware stack.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
AMD just confirmed it's launching Zen 6 exclusively on server hardware, and consumer users won't see it for at least twelve months. That's the clearest signal yet that the data center has fully displaced the desktop as the proving ground for x86 architecture.
Part of what's driving this server-first calculus is memory economics, and they're getting worse. HBM4 prices are forecast to roughly double between late 2026 and 2027, moving from around two dollars per gigabit to four or five dollars per gigabit.
The clearest example of that is Nvidia. The RTX five-zero-eight-zero Super was designed and then not manufactured.
Meanwhile, the hyperscalers aren't waiting for the GPU vendors to sort this out. Meta's custom Iris accelerator, designed with Broadcom and manufactured by TSMC, is entering production in September.
There's one more development worth watching carefully, though it comes with a caveat. There are reports that Nvidia's next-generation Kyber NVL one-four-four AI rack could be delayed to 2028 due to circuit board manufacturing issues.
Step back and the pattern across all of this is consistent. HBM scarcity is reshaping roadmaps.
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