According to TrendForce's observation, server demand will show growth in the second to third quarter, with Enterprise OEMs seeing the most significant increase in shipments, with Dell, HPE and Lenovo benefiting significantly.
According to TrendForce's observation, server demand will show growth in the second to third quarter, with Enterprise OEMs seeing the most significant increase in shipments, with Dell, HPE and Lenovo benefiting significantly. In addition to the well-known demand for AI server orders, recent tenders and the demand for storage servers driven by AI have helped drive second-quarter performance, with momentum continuing into the third quarter, with an estimated 4-5% quarterly increase.
Although the overall environment this year has been affected by AI budget, leading to less-than-expected growth in general servers throughout the year, recent related components such as Board Management Controller (BMC) and new CPUs have driven OEMs and CSPs to show good purchasing power based on the import of new server platforms. In addition, investigations into the ODMs supply chain have also found that server shipments have tended to increase seasonally in the second and third quarters, except in the first quarter when they tend to be weaker.
From the perspective of the supply chain, OEMs and CSPs are also more proactive in CPU preparation than in the past. In addition to Intel Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids showing quarterly growth, AMD Bergamo and Genoa are also benefiting from the increased cloud momentum. In terms of BMC, it will also benefit from the imminent production of GB200 and the enhancement of the stocking capacity of the mid-series industry, with many companies expected to increase order size at the end of the second quarter and third quarter. TrendForce also expects that DRAM bit shipments will exceed original expectations, and that DDR5 will account for more than 60% of total shipments in the third quarter.
In terms of Chinese companies, telecom bidding projects will be launched this month, boosting demand for related businesses such as IEIT and xFusion. In addition, ByteDance will increase its annual server purchases due to demand from new businesses, while Alibaba and Tencent are raising their server orders due to the replacement cycle.
According to TrendForce, it is still necessary to monitor whether current demand can continue to support server growth, but based on the current purchasing power of components, it seems that the exclusion effect on general servers previously caused by AI servers has gradually diminished.