After experiencing a sequential growth of 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023, first-quarter 2024 global server shipments are expected to climb another 1.7% sequentially and resume on-year growth.
Leading US-based cloud service providers were keen on AI server purchases in second-half 2023, which squeezed their budget for general-purpose servers. Going into first-quarter 2024, they are set to start a new round of purchases for general-purpose servers, giving rise to brisk server sales despite the traditional slow season.
High interest rates still made enterprises conservative toward their IT infrastructure deployment in fourth-quarter 2023. Although the shipments of new x86-based servers by server brands such as Dell and HPE continued to trend upward, their high costs and enterprises keeping old servers in operation for longer resulted in a slower turnover compared to the previous generation.
Chart 2: Global shipments by top-10 player, 4Q22-1Q24 (k units)
Chart 4: Taiwan server shipments and global share, 4Q22-1Q24 (k units)
Chart 31: Taiwan and global server shipments, 2019-2023 (k units)
Chart 32: Global server shipments by top-10 player, 2022-2023 (k units)
Chart 33: Taiwan server shipments by top maker, 2022-2023 (k units)
