Microsoft hints Intel CPU shortages may be over

During Microsoft's earnings call on Wednesday, company CFO Amy Hood noted that the software giant's strong results were partly the result of an improvement in the overall PC market. She stated that overall PC demand was stronger than anticipated, driven by an improved chip supply.

PC World writes the statement suggests the Intel CPU shortages are no longer the problem they used to be a couple of months ago. Intel wasn't specifically called out, but it seems that at least as far as Microsoft is concerned, Intel has sufficiently solved the 14nm CPU supply issues.

During Microsoft’s earnings call on Wednesday, chief financial officer Amy Hood said the overall PC market was stronger than anticipated. “In Windows, the overall PC market was stronger than we anticipated, driven by improved chip supply that met both unfulfilled Q2 commercial and premium consumer demand as well as better-than-expected Q3 commercial demand,” Hood said.

A quarter ago, Hood had taken a different tone, complaining on behalf of Microsoft that chip supply constraints had hurt the overall PC market. “The overall PC market was smaller than we expected primarily due to the timing of chip supply to our OEM partners, which constrained an otherwise healthy PC ecosystem and negatively impacted both OEM Pro and non-Pro revenue growth,” Hood said then.