Sales of PC motherboards are expected to fall 25%+ YoY in 2026, as PC users delay their upgrades amid AI-driven price surges for memory, storage, and processors (Jowi Morales/Tom's Hardware)

PC motherboard sales are projected to decline over 25% year-over-year in 2026 as consumers and enterprises delay hardware upgrades due to AI-driven price inflation across memory, storage, and processors. This decline signals a broader slowdown in IT refresh cycles that will impact hardware vendors, reduce technology refresh revenue, and extend the lifecycle of existing infrastructure, requiring IT organizations to plan for extended asset management and potentially deferred modernization initiatives. For CIOs, this represents both a budgeting opportunity and a strategic challenge—lower hardware costs may eventually emerge, but delayed upgrades risk workforce productivity and system obsolescence.