One US-made CPU
Panther Lake Is the Only Leading-Edge PC Processor Made in the US
Intel's Core Ultra series 3, code-named Panther Lake, is the first leading-edge PC processor whose compute die is made in the United States: its compute tile is built on Intel 18A at Fab 52 in Chandler, Arizona, and the chips reached laptops in January 2026. Every other current PC processor family, from AMD, Apple, Qualcomm and Intel's own previous generation, is made by TSMC in Taiwan.
The processor is no longer what limits the PC market. Gartner counted 55.4 million PCs shipped in the third quarter of 2026, down 22.4% from a year earlier, after DRAM costs rose about five times year over year in the second quarter and PC makers passed the cost on. IDC counted 62.7 million, down 20.1%. The US now makes a leading-edge PC processor; the memory and storage beside it, which set the price, are made in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Singapore.
Processors
Every Other PC Processor Family Is Made by TSMC in Taiwan
| Family | Designer | Compute die | Other tiles | Where made |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Ultra series 3 (Panther Lake) | Intel | Intel 18A | Graphics and platform tiles from Intel and TSMC processes | Compute tile: Fab 52, Arizona |
| Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake), 200S (Arrow Lake) | Intel | TSMC N3B | TSMC N6 platform tile | Taiwan |
| Ryzen AI 300 and 400, Ryzen 9000 | AMD | TSMC N4P | TSMC N6 I/O die on desktop parts | Taiwan |
| M5 | Apple | TSMC N3P | Single die | Taiwan |
| Snapdragon X2 Elite | Qualcomm | TSMC 3nm | Single die | Taiwan |
Panther Lake
Intel Brought Its Compute Tile Back From TSMC
Panther Lake is Intel 18A's first product and the test of Intel's foundry plan. Intel builds the compute tile, where the CPU cores sit, on 18A with RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and PowerVia backside power delivery, then joins it to graphics and platform tiles with Foveros 3D packaging. Intel 18A volume and yield are covered on Intel Foundry and Leading-Edge Logic Fabs; the packaging on Foveros.
The design choice matters for supply: earlier Core Ultra generations moved the compute tile to TSMC, so for 2024 and 2025 Intel's flagship laptop chips were made in Taiwan. Panther Lake brings the most valuable tile back to an Intel fab in the US.
Memory shock
DRAM Costs Rose Five Times and PC Shipments Fell a Fifth
A laptop carries 16 to 32 GB of DRAM and a 512 GB to 1 TB SSD. Both come from the memory makers whose capacity moved to high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM for AI data centers. Gartner said DRAM costs surged about five times year over year in the second quarter of 2026; vendors raised prices and shifted to higher-priced configurations, and shipments fell to levels last seen in early 2023. IDC also cited a pull-in hangover after channels stocked up in the first half ahead of price rises, and warned the next few quarters could get worse before they improve.
The 2025 PC refresh, driven by the end of Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, ended in a memory shortage. See DRAM, NAND and Memory and Storage.
Vendors
HP and Dell Fell Furthest, Apple Least
| Vendor | Units (thousands) | Share | Change from Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo | 14,993 | 27.1% | -22.4% |
| HP Inc. | 10,366 | 18.7% | -30.9% |
| Dell | 7,583 | 13.7% | -25.4% |
| Apple | 5,835 | 10.5% | -7.1% |
| ASUS | 4,677 | 8.5% | -13.0% |
| Acer | 3,866 | 7.0% | -11.2% |
| Others | 8,030 | 14.5% | -25.6% |
| Total | 55,351 | 100% | -22.4% |
Inside a laptop
Memory and Storage Now Set the Price of a Laptop
China
China Assembles Most Laptops and Supplies More of Their Memory
China makes most of the world's laptops in contract plants run by Quanta, Compal, Wistron and others, though assembly has been moving to Vietnam, Thailand and Mexico. Chinese processors such as Loongson and Zhaoxin (x86) serve government and state-owned buyers; CXMT and YMTC supply a rising share of DRAM and SSD flash to Chinese PC makers. Lenovo, the largest PC maker, is headquartered in Beijing and Hong Kong.
US status
The US Makes One PC Processor Die and No PC Memory
- Made in US
- Some US volume
- US planned
- Made abroad
| Chip | US production | Notes | US status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Panther Lake compute tile | Intel 18A, Fab 52, Chandler, Arizona | Graphics and platform tiles and final assembly and test are partly abroad | Made in US |
| Other x86 and Arm processors | TSMC Arizona makes some AMD and Apple chips | Current PC flagships from AMD, Apple and Qualcomm are made in Taiwan | Some US volume |
| DRAM | None at volume | Micron's Idaho and New York DRAM fabs come later in the decade | Made abroad |
| NAND flash and SSD controllers | None at volume | Korea, Japan, China, Singapore; controllers made at TSMC | Made abroad |
| Power delivery and analog | Texas Instruments and others in US fabs | Most VRM controllers and power stages are made in Asia | Some US volume |
Record
Page Record
- Covers
- PC processor families and where they are made, Intel Panther Lake and 18A, memory costs and PC shipments, vendor shipments, the chips in a laptop, China's role and US production status
- Sources
- Gartner preliminary third-quarter 2026 PC shipments (October 12, 2026); IDC third-quarter 2026 PC shipments (via HotHardware, October 9, 2026); Intel Panther Lake announcement (October 2025, via Maginative) and Intel product disclosures; company product announcements for AMD, Apple and Qualcomm processors; Microsoft Windows 10 end of support (October 14, 2025)
- Last verified
- October 2026