Anyone remotely interested in PC hardware knows by now that RAM and SSD prices are skyrocketing around the world, with as much as an eye-watering 240% in some cases, and even an unbeleivable 500%. This has to do with a severe shortage of NAND/DRAM chips used for making these memory sticks.
Why the shortage, you may ask? Well, AI. That’s right, AI is behind this major problem as well, like with many other countless potential issues we could also be facing in the future because of AI.
You see, the AI hype, which has greatly shifted production strategies for tech giants around the world, has also affected Samsung, one of the biggest NAND chips (for SSDs) and DRAM chips (for RAMs) producers in the world. Trying to keep up with the immense AI hype, Samsung moved most of its production efforts towards AI chips, leaving NAND/DRAM chips behind, creating a large global deficit for many RAM/SSD producers that rely on these memory chips.
As a result, production for RAMs and SSDs has taken a massive hit, creating an alarming gap in supply and demand, which is why you now have severely inflated prices for this hardware.
Since a wide variety of computing machines rely on this hardware, the cascading effect will reach anything and everything that uses these RAMs and SSDs, including not just PCs and laptops, but also consoles, phones, tablets, GPUs, and more. In fact, some of the top laptop makers, including Lenovo and Dell, have already announced price hikes for their upcoming 2026 releases.
In short, you can expect to see a very noticeable price increase in any machine using this type of memory.
It is already too late to go looking for older stocks at hardware retailers in hopes of lower prices, since previous stocks have been affected as well. Memory prices across the board are sky high everywhere for both online and offline retailers.
But let’s not forget about the good old HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). Since HDDs do not rely on NAND or DRAM chips, their prices and availability in the market remain unaffected. While not ideal for modern gaming, they can still be a reliable alternative for massive troves of data that don’t need to move around fast.
As a video editor, I’m always sitting on endless video footage from my gaming sessions, just waiting to be edited one day. It is incredibly convenient and cheap to keep them stored in multiple terabytes of large-capacity HDDs in my PC, even while using them for video editing.
Additionally, not every game performs poorly on an HDD. Yes, picky titles like Marvel Rivals will complain, but I do run Call of Duty Modern Warfare (the 2019 one) just fine on my HDD. Yes, it takes a while to start up, but once it’s up and running, it performs just fine. I did the same thing with many other games, such as Overwatch 2, Callisto Protocol, Silent Hill 2, and many others.
As for RAMs, you can always look for used ones being sold by individuals rather than shop owners or retailers. Some good Samaritans may still be selling RAM sticks at reasonable prices.
There are only two ways these exorbitant price tags will end for good:
As mentioned earlier, the heart of the problem lies with a severe lack of production from OEMs like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, all of which control about 95% of the global DRAM production collectively. So, unless and until these manufacturers can start ramping up production again, these extreme prices are not going anywhere.
However, ramping up production is easier said than done, as these tech giants keep a massive chunk of their production capacity at AI chips. I expect these production issues to last throughout a good portion of 2026, as resolving these issues is complicated, to say the least, especially since the AI race is not going to die anytime soon.
Speaking of the AI race, the only other way for this nightmare to end is if the AI bubble finally bursts, which is a big IF given how powerful and revolutionary modern AI systems have proven themselves to be. The biggest AI chatbot providers, such as OpenAI, continue to funnel trillions of dollars into their ambitious production and maintenance goals, but only generate billions in return, which is not a financially stable model to maintain over the long term.
However, given just how many startups and tech giants alike are joining in on the AI race, the bubble doesn’t look like it’s going to burst anytime soon, especially considering how important AI has become today.
So if I were to bet, scenario 1 is more likely to happen before scenario 2, meaning computing machine prices are going to stay ridiculous likely throughout the entirety of 2026, at the very least.
