Global PC shipments fell roughly 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, the industry's worst quarter in more than three years, according to research firms Omdia and IDC. Omdia described the period as the market's sharpest decline since Q1 2023. The downturn was attributed not to fading interest in laptops but to artificial intelligence, which has been absorbing the memory chips that PCs need to function. The episode is a stark illustration of how AI's infrastructure buildout now reaches past the data center into the economics of everyday consumer hardware.

The Numbers Behind the Slump

Omdia counted 58.1 million laptops, desktops, and workstations shipped worldwide during the quarter, a drop of 21.2% from the same period a year earlier. IDC's tally came in slightly higher at 62.7 million units, a decline of 20.1%. While the two firms' totals differ modestly, both point to a contraction of roughly one-fifth of the global PC market.

By form factor, desktop shipments fell 23.5% to 11.7 million units, while notebooks dropped 20.6% to 46.4 million. Notebooks make up the bulk of units shipped, so their trajectory effectively sets the tone for the whole market.

Lenovo held on to the top spot with approximately 14.9 million units shipped and roughly 24% to 26% market share, despite a decline of about 23% from a year earlier. HP posted the steepest drop among major vendors, falling approximately 31% to around 10.3 million units, while Dell saw shipments shrink by around 25%. Apple held up better than most, with volumes down around 11%, and ASUS posted the mildest decline of the group at 9%. The spread between the mildest and steepest declines — roughly 22 percentage points — shows the squeeze did not land evenly across the vendor landscape.

AI Demand and the Memory Crunch

The core problem is memory. Every PC requires DRAM, the short-term working memory that keeps applications running, and NAND, the flash storage that holds users' files. AI workloads need those same components, and the data centers training and running AI models have been absorbing supply that once flowed to consumer hardware.

Driven by AI demand, memory component prices have climbed to more than four times their previous levels. DRAM and NAND now make up almost 40% of a typical PC's bill of materials — the combined cost of a machine's components — compared with an average of around 15% previously. In practical terms, the chips that hold a PC's working memory and files now largely determine what a machine costs to build.

Timing effects compounded the pressure. In the first half of 2026, buyers rushed to purchase PCs ahead of expected price increases. That pull-forward demand inflated earlier shipments and left a hole in the quarters that followed, scrambling the usual seasonal buying rhythm.

Outlook

Omdia projects that shipments will fall another 24% year over year in Q4 2026, a steeper drop than the quarter just reported. The firm also expects a further 7% decline across all of 2027 — figures that offer clear checkpoints for the market's direction.

With memory now accounting for close to 40% of a machine's component costs, PC prices have little room to fall meaningfully while AI demand stays this strong.