RAM Prices Hit Record Highs as AI Boom Fuels Crisis Through 2027

Tech companies' growing appetite for the memory needed to train and run artificial intelligence models has triggered the deepest DRAM shortage in a decade. Industry analysts have just raised their price forecasts for the first quarter of 2026 from a 55-60 percent quarter-over-quarter increase to 90-95 percent, with some estimates pointing to a jump exceeding 100 percent, which would be a record in the market's history.

There's one cause: building data centers for AI workloads consumes so much silicon and manufacturing capacity that memory makers can't keep up with consumer market supply. TrendForce estimates that in 2026, data centers, both conventional and those dedicated solely to artificial intelligence, will consume more than 70 percent of global top-tier memory production. RAM manufacturers will meet just 60 percent of global demand for DRAM chips during that time.

Manufacturers Bet on AI

Micron, one of the world's three memory giants alongside Samsung and SK Hynix, posted revenue of $23.7 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, up 196 percent from a year earlier. The company has also decided to pull its consumer brand Crucial, known for popular RAM chips and SSDs aimed at gamers and PC enthusiasts, from retail, redirecting all production to corporate clients and AI data center operators.

AI demand is driving data center bit requirements for DRAM and NAND - Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology

Micron's decision signals just how much memory makers' priorities have shifted. Instead of splitting production capacity between the mass market and corporate clients, companies are directing an increasing share of output to where margins are higher, namely AI infrastructure suppliers. Samsung and SK Hynix are following a similar path, concentrating investment in HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), crucial for AI accelerators, at the expense of traditional DDR modules destined for computers and laptops.

What It Means for Hardware Prices

For the average consumer, this means simple math: pricier memory means pricier computers, laptops, consoles, and smartphones. Analysts estimate that memory's share of an electronic device's production cost could climb from under 10 percent to as much as 30 percent if the current pace of price hikes continues. That means electronics manufacturers will have to either pass those costs on to customers or find savings elsewhere, for instance by cutting the amount of memory built into cheaper models.

The Polish Angle

Polish IT hardware distributors and integrators are feeling the pinch too. Zbigniew Mądry, vice president and COO of AB Group, one of Poland's largest electronics distributors, admitted outright that the company is experiencing a severe shortage of memory modules, which paradoxically is boosting sales.

We have a very severe shortage of memory modules. Why do I think this is positive for AB? Because everyone knows the price will keep rising day by day, which means that if someone is planning purchases, they'll make them faster - Zbigniew Mądry, vice president and COO, AB Group

In other words, business and individual customers, seeing rising prices, are speeding up purchases instead of waiting for prices to drop, which further fuels demand and deepens the shortages. Polish tech companies, including Asseco and Comp, are reporting hardware delivery delays and cost pressure, though higher margins on IT services are partly offsetting rising component prices.

When Will the Crisis End

The most troubling part is the timeline. Boosting memory production capacity requires building new factories and production lines, a process that takes years, not months. Manufacturers indicate that a real increase in supply won't happen before late 2027, and some analyses don't rule out the shortage persisting even beyond 2030 if AI demand keeps growing at its current pace.

For the tech industry, it's a reminder that the AI boom has very physical, tangible side effects that reach far beyond data center power bills or the price of Nvidia graphics cards. This time the ripple effect is hitting one of the most basic components of every electronic device, one that most users never gave much thought to before.

Sources: AI boom triggers memory market crisis (managerplus.pl), RAM shortage to persist until 2027 (bankier.pl), AI devours more than half of global RAM (bithub.pl)