GoKawiilIntel on Friday confirmed that it had increased prices of some of its consumer and server CPUs, citing market dynamics, rising costs, and soaring demand for these products. While select enthusiast processors increased from $30 to $50, data center-grade products increased by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Intel is among many suppliers that have recently hiked prices of their products, citing increasing costs and demand that exceeds their supply.
"The recent pricing updates reflect current market dynamics, including rising supply chain costs and strong demand for our Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus processors," an Intel spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "These updates are in line with recent price increases for other Intel product families based on similar factors."
This week it turned out that Intel had quietly increased recommended customer prices (RCPs) of its latest Core Ultra 200-series Plus processors for desktops — the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 250K Plus — by $30 - $50, depending on the model. Both processors belong to the Arrow Lake family and, like the rest of them, are produced by TSMC. Yet, Intel's original 'non-Plus' Core Ultra 200-series processors did not increase their MSRP. The flagship Core Ultra 9 285K still carries a $599 RCP, just like it did at its launch in Q2 2024. Something similar applies to the least advanced Arrow Lake processor for desktops — the Core Ultra 5 225 — that has an RCP between $183 and $236, which is a bit lower than its launch RCP of $241.
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If Intel did see supply-chain inflation, it would be reasonable to expect the company to adjust prices of the whole family. Instead, the company raised prices only on select products that apparently had become unexpectedly attractive to customers who can afford them and who have probably demonstrated willingness to buy them above recommended prices. This means that we are not dealing with a simple cost pass-through, but rather with a price hike associated with strong demand for specific SKUs.
When it comes to data center-oriented processors, we see rather massive price hikes. While higher-end Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' CPUs cost less than they used to at launch in 2024, they are noticeably more expensive after Intel slashed their recommended prices in 2025, and they can be twofold higher when compared to retail prices from mid-2025. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that select Xeon 8000-series 'Emerald Rapids' processors now carry higher RCPs than they used to when they were released in late 2023.
Swipe to scroll horizontally Intel Xeon Performance Core Processors Model New RCP 2025 RCP Launch RCP Cores/Threads Base/Boost (GHz) TDP L3 Cache (MB) cTDP (W) Xeon 6980P (GNR) $13,955 $12,460 $17,800 128 / 256 2.0 / 3.9 500W 504 - Xeon 6979P (GNR) ? $11,025 $15,750 120 / 240 2.1 / 3.9 500W 504 - Xeon 6978P (GNR) $12,348 $11,025 - 120 / 240 2.1 / 3.9 500W 504 400-500 Xeon 6972P (GNR) $11,446 $10,220 $11,805 96 / 192 2.4 / 3.9 500W 480 - Xeon 6962P (GNR) $11,116 $9,925 - 72 / 144 2.7 / 3.9 500W 432 - Xeon 6952P (GNR) $10,209 $9,115 $11,400 96 / 192 2.1 / 3.9 400W 480 ? Xeon 6960P (GNR) $10,780 $9,625 $13,750 72 / 144 2.7 / 3.9 500W 432 - Intel Xeon 8592+ (EMR) $12,992 $11,600 $11,600 64 / 128 1.9 / 3.9 350W 320 - Intel Xeon 8580 (EMR) $11,995 ? $10,710 60/120 2.0/4.0 350W 300 -
All Intel Xeon processors are produced internally (so Intel cannot blame higher costs on TSMC), and while Intel gets raw materials from its partners, it is doubtful that overpriced photoresist can significantly affect RCPs of CPUs that sell for thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, Intel has been saying for several quarters now that demand for its Xeon processors exceeds supply. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for Intel to finally capitalize on that and increase RCPs of popular models.
There is a caveat, though. Actual prices of data center hardware tend to differ from list prices as they depend on many factors, including volumes and strategic relations between suppliers and consumers. To that end, while it is evident that Intel has increased RCPs of its Xeon CPUs, it remains to be seen how this affects its average selling prices (ASPs) for the ongoing quarter and for the whole year.
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