- A report conveys a claim from a research firm that suggests memory prices will rise 40% to 50% higher by the end of the first quarter.
- Another analyst firm points out that there is a “permanent reallocation” of the supply of RAM chips towards AI companies
- Data centers are expected to absorb more than 70% of the total supply of high-end memory chips this year.
As the RAM crisis appears to intensify by the week, a new report makes clear that the results could have a more far-reaching impact for consumers than might be expected, leaving a variety of technologies facing price increases in a scenario similar to the disruption the pandemic caused to supply chains.
Tom’s Hardware highlighted The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that underscores how bad the RAM crisis has become and, in fact, how much worse it is likely to get.
We’re told that, according to Counterpoint Research, memory prices are expected to rise another 40% to 50% by the end of the first quarter (March) of 2026, and that prices have already increased by 50% in the last quarter of 2025.
This is all happening due to the rise of AI, with memory being gobbled up by the data centers needed to power the increasingly popular LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini, among others (such as DeepSeek and Kimi K2 in China).
The servers in those data centers need large amounts of RAM, and the heavy graphics cards that are also key to powering the AI responses you can use every day also require video RAM (and a lot of it). In short, AI consumes a lot of RAM and booming AI companies are paying a lot of money to continue driving growth.
As the WSJ report explains, the colossal purchasing power of AI is sidelining other industries trying to acquire memory, and this could have a knock-on effect across all types of technology.
That is, not just the RAM in your laptop, PC, or smartphone, but also consumer electronics like TVs, cars, and, well, anything that has internal memory, all of which are facing potential price increases thanks to memory shortages caused by AI. (And, it’s worth noting, it was also caused by decisions made by memory chip makers some time ago, when there was excess inventory and production was reduced to correct that; the demand for AI resulted in a massive overcorrection in the other direction.)
So there has been talk of this being another situation like the pandemic, where the supply chain is severely affected and prices rise (and certain products are difficult, or even impossible, to get – we can already see this happening to some extent, such as with high-end GPUs).
As Avril Wu, senior vice president of research at analyst firm TrendForce, says: “I’ve been following the memory industry for almost 20 years, and this time it’s really different. It really is the craziest time ever.”
Another analyst firm, IDC, estimates that memory (and storage) price increases will hit PC and phone sales by dropping 9% and 5% respectively in 2026 (as those costs are inevitably passed on to consumers).
Additionally, IDC notes that a “permanent reallocation” of supply is occurring to favor AI companies, and obviously that will be to the detriment of, well, everything else that uses memory. The prediction is that data centers (not just AI processing ones, but all of these facilities) will consume more than 70% of the total supply of high-end memory chips that will be manufactured in 2026. Ouch.
Analysis: AI is eating your RAM dinner
So is there any hope to cling to here for us beleaguered consumers in the face of the RAM-guzzling AI giant?
Well, the big memory chip makers (Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix) have put the pedal to the metal in terms of accelerating the construction of new production facilities to produce more chips. The problem, however, is that those plans are longer-term and won’t really have any bearing on RAM supply until 2028. Which, of course, jives with a lot of those predictions we’ve heard about the RAM crisis not only being felt by this year, but throughout 2027 as well.
In the meantime, creative solutions may come into play, such as reusing old memory chips. The WSJ points to the case of Caramon, a company that recovers RAM from decommissioned servers, whose sales value has nearly doubled from $500,000 to $900,000 a month in the few months since the memory crisis hit.
Consumers can try purchasing used RAM on auction sites in a similar manner, or even scavenge memory from an old PC at home to build a new one (as a workaround).
And we could pin some hope on the AI industry finding its own creative solutions to reduce reliance on large amounts of RAM; check out this recent development with DeepSeek.
For now, however, the AI RAM monster is very real and could be a punishing beast that consumers will have to contend with for years to come.
The best computers for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and tiktok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
