The Global Memory-Chip Shortage Will Cost Us All
If you had put all your savings into a few pallets of computer memory chips a year ago, you’d have at least doubled your money by now. And prices are projected to continue their meteoric rise.
Behind the value of one of the world’s fastest-appreciating assets is the voracious appetite of AI companies. These same chips—mainly what’s known as RAM, but also the storage chips often called flash or solid-state memory—are required for almost every digital device on the planet. And just three companies make more than 90% of them: SK Hynix , Samsung and Micron.
Prices for memory shot up 50% in the last quarter of 2025 and are projected to increase another 40% to 50% by the end of the first quarter of 2026, according to Counterpoint Research, fueled mainly by builders of data centers, who are willing to pay huge premiums.
Because AI firms are crowding out other buyers of memory, unexpected consequences are likely to reverberate across countless industries. Effects could include delayed data centers, higher prices for laptops, TVs and other consumer electronics, and possible chip shortages for automakers that would delay vehicle production, in a potential repeat of the pandemic car crisis.
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In consumer electronics, margins are already razor-thin. Smaller manufacturers will likely have no choice but to raise prices, potentially denting demand. The situation has intensified so rapidly in the past two months that tech research firm IDC issued an update to its year-ahead forecast for smartphones and PCs because the anticipated price hikes are expected to reduce consumer demand. In the new worst-case scenario, smartphone sales in 2026 could dip 5%, and PC sales by nearly 9%, as a result of significantly higher prices for the gadgets.
Makers of automobile electronics, telecom equipment and other components face a separate but related issue: They often require older types of memory that manufacturers are moving away from making. If you run one of these component makers, “you gotta buy a plane ticket and get that allocation from manufacturers right now,” says MS Hwang, a research director at Counterpoint Research who has been in the memory industry for more than 30 years. “Those guys are now selling their capacity not only for 2026, but also 2027 and 2028,” he adds.
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https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/memory-ram-shortage-2026-f55324b0?st=tyoZfS&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
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