Many large computer manufacturers such as HP, Asus, Acer moved part of their production back to China to save costs during the price storm.

According to Nikkei Asia, the new move is to deal with rising component prices, stemming from a serious shortage of memory chips during the AI ​​fever. The change marks a reversal from the previous strategy of shifting production from China to other countries, when US-China tensions led to many trade restrictions.

China is still considered the best choice for computer manufacturing with an experienced workforce, low costs and a complete supply chain that can provide a full range of components. However, computer companies are also turning to cooperate with little-known Chinese companies because they provide products at affordable prices, while large and long-standing partners are increasingly focusing on high-profit orders serving AI data center servers.

In addition to HP, Asus, Acer, it is likely that Dell is also considering moving part of its production back to China. "The real move comes from cost pressure. Not only memory chips but also other component prices have increased so much that computer companies are finding it increasingly difficult to accept," the director of a component supply company told Nikkei Asia, stating that the scale of the trend could increase if the cost situation does not improve.

The conversion helps reduce cost concerns, but has a negative impact on the newly established supply chain. "We built two new production lines in Thailand for customers, and now they transfer a large amount of orders to China. Those two lines are still not profitable. I don't know when they will transfer orders back here," said a manager at a computer components supplier.

The memory chip crisis caused by AI is pushing consumer RAM prices to skyrocket. A survey of selling prices in the US for the period from August 2025 to July 2026 conducted by Tom's Hardware shows that the average DDR5 RAM models increased by about 500% in 12 months. In addition, many other components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) and fiberglass fabric used for motherboard production are also becoming more expensive.

Thu Thao summary