Why RAM Prices Are Spiking Right Now
If you have been eyeing a new gaming PC build or planning a RAM upgrade, you have probably noticed something painful. Memory prices are climbing fast and there is no clear end in sight. Micron, one of the biggest memory manufacturers, is the latest company to weigh in on why this is happening and who is really to blame.
Christopher Moore, Micron’s VP of Marketing for its Mobile and Client Business Unit, explains that the core issue is not some secret plot to squeeze gamers. Instead, the total addressable market for memory in data centers has exploded because of artificial intelligence. AI training and inference workloads need massive amounts of high performance DRAM, so companies like Micron are racing to supply huge AI data centers first.
According to Moore, this is not a Micron specific problem but an industry wide crunch. Every major memory manufacturer is trying to ramp up production for AI customers, but there simply is not enough supply to satisfy both AI data centers and regular consumers at the same time. Building new production lines and fabs is slow and expensive. Even when companies invest, those new lines take several quarters to come online. That means shortages and high prices can easily drag on for years rather than months.
In short, AI has created a huge new demand for DRAM. That demand is soaking up supply that would otherwise help keep consumer RAM prices reasonable.
How the AI DRAM Shortage Hits PC Gamers
The impact for PC gamers and everyday users is simple and annoying. RAM and any device that includes a decent chunk of memory is getting more expensive and is likely to stay that way for a while.
We are already seeing this in the market:
- Desktop RAM kits, especially DDR5, have jumped in price compared to a year or two ago.
- Laptops, gaming rigs, and prebuilt systems that include higher RAM capacities are becoming pricier.
Other companies back up Micron’s story. RAM maker G Skill has directly blamed high demand from the AI industry for the surge in DRAM prices. Industry analysts cited by Goldman Sachs expect conventional DRAM prices to increase by double digit percentages quarter over quarter throughout every quarter of 2026. Samsung has warned that price impacts across different device segments are basically inevitable.
Micron itself has previously said that strong demand and supply constraints will likely keep the DRAM market tight beyond 2026. So if you were hoping this is just a short lived bump, the industry messaging is the opposite. The AI boom is locking in high memory demand for the long term.
For the average gamer, that means:
- Building a new PC with 32 GB or 64 GB of DDR5 is going to cost more than it would have a couple of years ago.
- Upgrading from 16 GB to 32 GB to keep up with newer titles might feel harder to justify on a tight budget.
- Waiting for a big crash in RAM prices might not pay off any time soon if AI demand keeps soaking up supply.
This does not mean you should panic buy, but it does mean planning your upgrades more carefully, watching deals, and accepting that memory is not in the ultra cheap phase we saw before the AI rush.
Are Memory Makers To Blame?
Whenever prices spike, gamers and PC builders naturally get suspicious. Memory manufacturers do not have a perfectly clean history. There has been documented DRAM price fixing in the past and more recent lawsuits have accused big names like Samsung, Micron, and Hynix of colluding to drive prices up.
Because of that history, some people assume that any major price surge must be a new round of manipulation. But this time, the situation looks more driven by genuine demand than by secret coordination. Gigantic AI data centers really are buying enormous volumes of DRAM. These projects are fueled by tech giants throwing billions at AI hardware and software, all of which eat memory as fast as it can be produced.
The writer’s view is that most PC hardware enthusiasts already understand this. The frustration is not so much aimed at Micron or G Skill specifically. Instead, a lot of the annoyance is aimed at the AI boom itself. Gamers see energy, hardware, and money being poured into AI projects that do not always feel useful or relevant to them, while the side effect is that basic components like RAM become more expensive.
Some will argue that this is short sighted and that AI will bring big long term benefits that make the current pain worthwhile. Others are skeptical and see an overinflated AI bubble dragging up hardware prices for everyone else. Wherever you fall on that debate, the practical takeaway for PC users is clear.
If you plan to upgrade your rig, treat RAM and storage as components that are more likely to rise or stay high in price for the next few years rather than drop back to the deep discounts we saw in the past.
In the meantime, it pays to:
- Buy the amount of RAM you actually need instead of massively overbuying.
- Time upgrades around sales and promotions.
- Consider keeping a solid but slightly older build for longer, especially if it already has 16 GB or 32 GB of decent DDR4.
The AI era is here, and one of the first places PC gamers feel it is in their memory budget.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/micron-says-its-not-to-blame-for-its-high-memory-prices-theres-just-not-enough-supply-to-go-around/
