2026-01-16
AI Compute Frenzy! Q3 White-Box Server Shipments Hit 950K Histor
Core Overview: Supply Chain Bottlenecks Ease, Single-Quarter Shipments Erupt
According to the latest DataTrack data, global "OEM Others / Self Build" server shipments in the third quarter of 2025 reached 950.0 K pcs, a significant jump of 28.5% from the previous quarter's 739.0 K, setting the highest record in the history of this data series. This explosive growth broke the consolidation pattern of the past two years, which maintained around 750 K, confirming that AI server supply chain bottlenecks (specifically CoWoS advanced packaging and HBM memory) significantly eased in Q3, allowing long-backlogged CSP (Cloud Service Provider) orders to be concentrated and converted into actual shipments.
Key Details: ODM Direct Revenue and Shipments Surge in Tandem
The surge in this quarter's data was primarily driven by two major factors, coinciding highly with external market data:
ODM Direct Model Establishes Dominance: According to IDC data, global server market revenue in 2025 Q3 increased by 61% year-on-year, with the "ODM Direct" category revenue reaching as high as US$66.79 billion, a staggering year-on-year increase of 59.4%, with market share approaching 60%. This indicates that it has become mainstream for CSPs to bypass brand manufacturers and purchase "rack-level" systems (such as GB200 NVL72) directly from ODM factories like Quanta, Wiwynn, and Foxconn.
Volume Ramp of In-House ASIC Chips: In addition to NVIDIA GPU servers, the expanded deployment of Amazon (AWS) Trainium v2 and Google TPU also contributed significant "Self Build" shipment volumes, boosting overall white-box figures.
Deep Attribution: Realization of the Capital Expenditure Super Cycle
Market analysis points out that 2025 is a "Super Cycle Year" for the capital expenditure (CapEx) of the four major CSPs (Microsoft, Google, AWS, Meta). TrendForce analysis shows that to ensure a leading position in the AI model training and inference market, CSPs are sparing no expense to snap up high-unit-price AI servers. The shipment jump in Q3 is exactly the superposition effect of orders deferred from the first half due to Blackwell yield issues and additional budgets in the second half, showing the market moving from "chip grabbing" to a substantive construction phase of "rack grabbing."
Outlook and Risks: Growth Continues in 2026, But Watch Base Effects
Short Term (1-2 months): Entering the traditional peak season of Q4, coupled with the comprehensive volume ramp of the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, single-quarter shipments are expected to maintain the high range of 950 K - 1,000 K.
Medium Term (3-6 months): Looking ahead to the first half of 2026, TrendForce estimates that AI server shipments will still maintain a growth of over 20%, but due to the comparison base having been significantly elevated, the annual growth rate is feared to converge. Additionally, the market needs to closely monitor whether CSPs will adjust the procurement ratio of GPUs and ASICs in response to rising inference demand, which will affect the order share and gross margin structure of specific ODM operators.
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