Speaking at the company’s “Dragon Smile Award” ceremony, attended by Acer founder Shi Zhenrong, Chen said that CPU supply was too tight to mention and memory price spikes were weighing on the industry.

“Currently there are shortages of CPUs and memory, but CPU prices have not increased,” Chen said.

He said Acer is busy closing its third-quarter books and preparing fourth-quarter shipments. At the start of the year, analysts wondered whether demand would peak early, but Chen now reckons the rear end of 2025 will be stronger.

That improvement comes mainly from normal seasonal demand rather than any big backlog of orders. Consumer confidence was shaky at the start of the year, but he thinks the market has stabilised.

Chen said the spanner in the works was parts. DRAM prices have surged thanks to AI server demand, and not all those costs can be pushed onto consumers. He said Acer was watching Chinese supply closely, as memory prices could put pressure on margins.

CPUs are another sore point. Supplies from Troubled Chipzilla and AMD are as rare as hen's teeth. While there are no price hikes there is not enough stock to go around. Chen said both vendors are scrambling to balance supply and demand, but there is no sign of relief anytime soon.

Revenue numbers are not helping much either. Acer posted NT$218 billion (€6.3 billion) in August, down 1.17 per cent from July and 4.46 per cent year-on-year. The first eight months brought NT$171.7 billion (€5 billion), a slight 0.31 per cent dip from last year.

Desktop sales in August climbed 7.2 per cent year-on-year, while gaming and e-sports products jumped 24.8 per cent.

Acer’s non-PC and display businesses are gaining ground, accounting for 33.3 per cent of revenue in August and 32.3 per cent over the first eight months.