'AI PCs will become more important': AMD's Lisa Su remains optimistic about the market despite runaway pricing caused by *checks notes* the AI industry

Within the increasingly costly realm of PC users, AMD CEO Lisa Su remains confident that "AI PCs will become more important" for the average consumer. At AMD's recent earnings call, Su shared her optimism about the company's product portfolio, which will cater not only to traditional notebook and desktop markets but also to an AI-centric PC experience.

Notably, the Ryzen AI Max+ 388, a chip designed for handheld PC gaming, exemplifies this trend. Q2 revenue reached a record-breaking $11.5 billion, primarily driven by demand from data centers. Despite this, Su emphasized her optimism about the PC market as a way to reach a broader set of users and drive future growth.

The gaming segment of AMD's business has shrunk by 31%, largely due to high hardware costs. Consequently, the company has been selling more lower-end and mobile Ryzen processors, rather than the latest gamer-geared GPUs and CPUs. Su acknowledged the volatility in hardware pricing, stating that the market will be influenced by component costs in the coming quarters.

The client segment, which primarily includes CPUs, APUs, and chipsets for desktops and notebooks, generated around $3.1 billion outside of gaming hardware. Su reported that the client business's first-half performance has been very strong, with year-on-year growth expected in this consumer-focused sector, despite a projected decline in the second half of 2026.

Even if expectations are not met, data center demand will likely offset this impact. However, the substantial build-out of AI infrastructure by big tech continues to drive up memory and other component prices. Su questioned how AMD envisions AI PCs being affordable to consumers in this increasingly expensive landscape.