According to the latest report of global market research institute TrendForce, although the growth of global general-purpose servers this year is not as strong as expected due to the impact of AI budget crowding out, global server shipments are expected to grow in the following quarter thanks to the warming of upstream supply chain demand.

The report pointed out that with the introduction of new server platforms, related components such as baseboard management controllers (BMCS) and new CPU purchases are strong. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and CSPs (cloud service providers) are also more active than ever in preparing cpus. In particular, Intel's Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids, as well as AMD's Bergamo and Genoa processor products, are showing a trend of quarterly growth.

From the perspective of the supply chain, new products such as GB200 in the BMC field are about to be mass-produced, which also promotes the enhancement of the stock momentum of the middle system industry. It is expected that at the end of the second quarter and the third quarter, the order size will expand significantly, and the original factory shipments will exceed the original expectations. At the same time, the proportion of DDR5 memory will also increase to 60% in the third quarter.

Jibang observed that server demand will show growth in Q2 to Q3, with Enterprise OEMs seeing the most significant shipment growth, including brands such as Dell, HPE and Lenovo. In addition to the growth in demand for AI server orders, the standard cases suspended by the epidemic and the demand for AI-powered storage servers have also boosted server shipments.

 In addition, CSPs such as ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have also increased the purchase of server machines due to new business needs and replacement cycles.

Jibang said that although it is still necessary to pay attention to whether the current demand can continue to support the growth of servers, the current component procurement momentum shows that the effect of general purpose servers previously crowded out by AI servers has gradually faded. Overall, the global server market is expected to grow by 4-5% in the next quarter.