Funnily enough, that's still possible as Nova Lake seems to have been pushed back as well. On Weibo, leaker Golden Pig Upgrade has claimed that the Blue Team's next-gen desktop CPUs will be released in 2027, despite CEO Lip-Bu Tan previously confirming a year-end launch . There's still a chance that initial Nova Lake variants come out in Q4 2026, with Nova Lake-S to be officially unveiled at CES 2027.
It's too early to speculate on all this, since Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake refresh hasn't even been announced yet, and the company just launched Panther Lake for mobile devices. AMD is more straightforward, as its next desktop launch is supposed to be Zen 6 with no stopgaps in between. Besides, given the current state of the tech landscape, these reports are only really unearthing rationality rather than revealing shocking information.
Last year, Intel said it was shifting production capacity from consumer chips to data center CPUs, and it's no surprise to see this now. Nearly every company has begun prioritizing AI money — that's how we're in this mess after all — so even though there's no reason given for Nova Lake-S' delay, we might be able to connect the dots with the little info we have.
We do know a lot about specs; however, a couple of days ago, we covered the leaked Zen 6 core configs, which are expected to finally introduce a 12-core CCD, enabling a new 24-core Ryzen flagship. Top-end Nova Lake is a 52-core behemoth on the other hand, with up to 288 MB of bLLC to compete with X3D chips. Either family is set to bring major architectural improvements, so the battle is sure to be spicy.
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-zen-6-and-intel-nova-lake-cpus-reportedly-arriving-late-delayed-to-ces-2027-next-gen-chips-rocked-by-industry-turmoil#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.