If there was ever a golden age of cheap storage and memory, I’m sorry it’s over.
The 2 TB Did you buy an NVMe SSD early last year? It costs three times what you pay now. It was a 32GB DDR5 RAM kit 90 dollars last summer? Now it is in the middle 300 dollars and 500 dollarsif you can find it for sale.
The Impact of the RAM crisis The downside is felt in technology markets everywhere. Xbox announced this week another console price hike. “Apple” company has announced that it has increased the prices of “MacBooks”. Microsoft recently has raised the prices of its Surface PCs. The The Steam Machine debuts at $1,049. I could go on.
The worst part of this whole RAMpocalypse? No one really knows when it will end.
Why are memory and storage prices still rising?
So what happened? AI happened. The way the world memory market is structured depends on three big companies to supply everyone with DRAM for consumer memory and storage.
Samsung, SK hynixand micron at the start of the AI boom, they realized they could make more money by moving away from consumer memory and toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is used in AI data centers.
The profit margins on the other hand are huge and I don’t really find it surprising that these huge corporations are changing as companies. Microsoft, Googleand Amazon they actually offered blank checks to get as much storage as possible.
The result of these moves by the big three memory manufacturers is, of course, a stranglehold on the consumer memory market. This is not a typical supply crunch like we’ve seen in the past, and it can be overcome by bringing a new manufacturing plant online.
This time, the memory crisis is a reallocation of the world’s DRAM production capacity, with no real end in sight.
I don’t think RAM and SSD prices will drop anytime soon
I don’t expect tech prices to drop anytime soon, and you don’t have to take my word for it.
Counterpoint Research confirmed in February memory prices have increased I quarter of 2026 by 80% for 90% compared to 4th quarter of 2025. Late last year, Kingston noted that he is one 246% increase The price of NAND wafers compared to the start of 2025 is the sharpest in the company’s 29-year history.
In February 2026 Gartner announced its results It suggests that DRAM and SSD prices may increase by the end of 2026 130% Compared to 2025, this may also increase PC prices 17%. I believe we are already seeing these estimates come into play, and the same study predicts that global PC shipments may decline. 10.4% this year.
By the end of 2026, DRAM and SSD prices could increase by 130% compared to 2025, which could increase PC prices by 17%.
It gets worse. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra signaled earlier this year He said the RAM crisis will continue After 2026. this week, Micron announced most of its DRAM was purchased through long-term contracts 2030and almost no end to the crisis.
SK hynix, one of the big three DRAM players, reported selling HBM, DRAM and NAND production capacity in 2025. 2026.
OK, I know that’s a lot of numbers, but I’m trying to get my point across: the RAM and SSD crisis is unlikely to end in 2026. It probably won’t end in 2027 either. 2028 may be our lucky year, but that’s relatively far into the future and harder to predict.
The problem is compounded by the fact that it takes a very long time to set up new manufacturing facilities, not to mention the billions of dollars required to implement the project.
Micron is building a new manufacturing plant in Idahofor example, but it is unlikely to start producing anything meaningful until the end 2027. Note that this is the same company In 2025, it eliminated the entire consumer RAM and SSD portfolio Focusing on AI clients.
Samsung and SK hynix, meanwhile, are focusing on ramping up production at their existing factories, as the new factories won’t be ready until they arrive. Late 2020s.
Most of the analyst forecasts I’ve read rightly point to some relief no sooner than late 2027, and I’m not talking about 2024 prices. If these prices ever come back, it will be at the end of a long, slow decline as the market levels off.
If memory prices fall, will PC prices fall too?
I certainly enjoy entertaining more conspiracy ideas, and one question I don’t think enough people ask is PC pricing. after memory and storage markets are returning to normal.
Will laptops, PC components, consoles, tablets, and other affected tech products drop in price once the RAM and storage markets normalize?
If I’m optimistic, yes, I believe the correction in component prices will also lead to corrections in PC and console prices.
If I’m optimistic, yes, I believe the correction in component prices will also lead to corrections in PC and console prices. History shows that this is not unusual. There was a glut of memory and storage in 2023 and 2024, and I remember consumer prices softening a bit.
However, I don’t think 2026/2027/2028 will be the same as the past years. PC manufacturers expect to see a big bump in PC shipments worldwide in 2026. As mentioned, Gartner 10.4% landing IDC study indicates a 11.3% landing
Unfortunately, the PC market is still expected to grow, raising prices for consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in the following years.
This is what I find especially scary. If sales are falling but profits continue to rise, is there really any financial pressure for PC makers to cut prices?
I don’t think most PC manufacturers will care about entry-level buyers getting out-of-market pricing when hobbyist and enterprise customers continue to blow their money. Why bother with discounted laptops with slim margins?
Gartner believes Under $500 the laptop market will disappear completely by 2028and I would say we are already well on our way. Will this market recover when RAM and SSD prices normalize? It’s hard to say.
I can refer to the GPU price increases during the cryptocurrency boom and pandemic shortage a few years ago. GPU prices went up, the market leveled off, and GPU prices went down again. But they didn’t retreat all the way, resetting to a higher baseline than before.
Consumers were used to paying inflated GPU prices, and there was really no incentive to lower prices to 2019 levels. I think the same logic applies to the PC market.
The Chinese wildcard can save us all
Competition is likely the only thing that can save us, preventing the AI boom from collapsing and the market bubble from bursting.
Samsung, SK hynix and Micron currently control 90% world DRAM production, making it easier to coordinate prices. I’m not saying it’s an outright deal, but it’s definitely something.
Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron currently control about 90% of DRAM production worldwide, making it very easy to coordinate prices.
The best chance to break this oligopoly comes from China. companies like YMTC and CXMT they have steadily increased their share of the NAND market with newfound production and new fabs.
If these competitors can actually scale up production and supply their products to international buyers, I don’t see how that wouldn’t break the oligopoly. It’s not that easy for Chinese manufacturers, as export challenges, access to advanced equipment and geopolitical concerns are hurdles they have to overcome.
What does this mean for you and your next PC?
Gartner expects the lifespan of personal computers for regular consumers to increase slightly 20% by the end of this year. The era of cheap PC upgrades is over.
When the new DRAM factories come online, I expect them to serve AI customers first. Consumers will buy scraps as they are now. Chinese DRAM makers could enter the international market and force prices down, but I doubt it’s enough to have a serious impact.
👉 The best Windows laptop of 2026
If you’re waiting for the RAM crisis to end before buying your next device, I have bad news. The most optimistic forecasts put the easing early End of 2027 or 2028and the most pessimistic pushes the dates in 2030s.
If you need a new computer now, I recommend buying one that will last for years to come. What some thought was a brief blip on the PC market chart has serious power. What it will look like if it ever does return to normal is anyone’s guess.
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