Why RAM Prices Are Skyrocketing in 2026 | CyReader
Industry Trends
By CyWriter · CyReader · Laptops & PCs
If you have shopped for a new laptop, gaming PC, or upgrade kit recently and noticed the price feels wrong, it is not you. Memory prices have surged dramatically through 2026, with some trackers reporting increases of more than 100 percent in a single quarter. The cause has nothing to do with a factory fire or a shipping crisis. It comes down to one thing: artificial intelligence data centers are buying up nearly all the memory the industry can produce.
The numbers behind the surge
According to research firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research, memory prices surged approximately 90 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the final quarter of 2025. Other trackers paint an even starker picture. Wccftech reported consumer RAM prices inflating by up to 110 percent and SSD prices surging as much as 147 percent in that same period. Looking at the full picture across 2025 and into 2026, DRAM prices climbed roughly 170 percent, and NAND flash contract prices jumped more than 60 percent in a single month back in November 2025.
By the third quarter of 2026, the pace has moderated slightly but is still climbing. TrendForce projects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise another 13 to 18 percent quarter over quarter in Q3, with NAND flash contract prices increasing 10 to 15 percent in the same window.
What is actually causing the shortage
The root cause is a deliberate shift in manufacturing priorities. Just three companies, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, control more than 95 percent of global DRAM production. All three have been redirecting factory capacity away from the standard memory used in laptops, phones, and game consoles, toward high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the specialized memory that sits next to AI accelerator chips in data centers.
The scale of the shift is difficult to overstate. Producing HBM is extremely wafer-intensive, with industry estimates suggesting roughly one gigabyte of HBM consumes about four gigabytes worth of standard DRAM wafer capacity. AI-related demand is expected to absorb close to 20 percent of the entire industry’s DRAM wafer capacity in 2026. OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure project alone is estimated to require close to 40 percent of global DRAM output at peak build-out.
The clearest signal of where manufacturers’ priorities now sit came in February 2026, when Micron retired its long-standing consumer-facing Crucial memory brand entirely, choosing to concentrate on data-center and HBM products instead. Micron has also indicated its HBM output is effectively sold out for all of 2026.
How this affects everyday buyers
- Laptops: memory and storage cost increases are being passed directly to consumers, with weaker base configurations and fewer strong discounts than in previous years.
- Gaming PCs and consoles: component costs have pushed up prices across the board, with handheld gaming PCs among the hardest hit categories.
- Smartphones: phones are affected too, with some analysts predicting a degree of quiet “shrinkflation,” where storage tiers shrink or prices creep up without dramatic announcements.
Practical advice: if you have been planning to buy or upgrade a laptop, PC, or phone this year, most industry analysts recommend not waiting. Multiple system integrators have said they are holding off passing on the full price increases to customers for as long as they can, which means today’s prices may be the best you will see for a while.
When might prices come back down
The honest answer from most analysts is not soon. Gartner’s analysis, reported in June 2026, projected a memory cost surge on the order of 130 percent and warned of an extended storage crunch stretching into 2027. SK Hynix has gone further, forecasting that 2027 could be the worst year yet for memory shortages, with the crunch potentially lasting until 2030. Relief, when it eventually comes, is expected to arrive gradually as new production capacity comes online, rather than through any sudden correction.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why are RAM prices so high right now?
AI data centers require enormous amounts of high-bandwidth memory to power AI training and inference, and the three companies that make almost all the world’s DRAM have redirected factory capacity toward that higher-margin product, leaving less supply for consumer devices.
2. How much have memory prices increased in 2026?
Estimates vary by source and time period, but multiple trackers report consumer RAM price increases in the range of 90 to 110 percent, with SSD prices rising even more sharply in some quarters.
3. Will laptop and phone prices keep rising?
Analysts expect the shortage to persist through 2026 and potentially into 2027, with some forecasts suggesting the crunch could last until 2030, though the pace of price increases has started to moderate slightly in recent months.
4. Should I buy a new laptop or PC now or wait?
Most industry analysts recommend buying sooner rather than later if you need a new device, since manufacturers are currently absorbing some of the cost increases and prices are expected to keep climbing rather than fall.
5. Is this shortage only affecting gaming and computer hardware?
No. The shortage touches nearly every device that uses standard memory, including laptops, smartphones, and game consoles, since they all compete for the same shrinking pool of non-AI memory production.
Sources: Northeastern University College of Engineering, The Boom of AI is Behind the Surge in RAM Prices; Tom’s Hardware, Memory Price Surge Begins to Cool as Consumers Hit Affordability Limit; Wccftech, RAM Shortage 2026 Explained: Why AI Is Causing a DDR5 Crisis.
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