Memory prices are going up and everyone is feeling the effects. Recently, major memory chip companies like Samsung and SK hynix have decided to charge customers up to thirty percent more for memory products like DRAM and NAND flash. This is happening in the last part of the year and it could continue in the future.
The main reason for this price increase is a supply shortage. Experts believe that this shortage could continue for three or even four more years. Because there is not enough supply to match the high demand, prices are rising. At the same time, the market for high bandwidth memory is expected to grow to one hundred billion dollars by 2030.
Artificial intelligence companies are making the situation even more intense. Big names like OpenAI are signing huge contracts that require large amounts of memory. These companies need a lot of DRAM and NAND flash for their new data centers. Countries like the United Kingdom are also investing heavily in artificial intelligence and working with leading technology companies to expand their own capacity.
It is not just the newest types of memory that are affected. Even older styles, like DDR4, are becoming more expensive while newer DDR5 prices also increase. Storage devices like hard drives are also facing shortages because cloud and artificial intelligence companies are buying so much of them.
Many companies have warned that these supply shortages are only getting worse. While the news might seem to focus on artificial intelligence, the truth is that everyone will be affected. Memory used in artificial intelligence data centers comes from the same factories as the memory in your home computer. This means that rising costs for big customers usually lead to higher prices for everyone, including everyday consumers who want to upgrade their RAM.
If you are considering upgrading your computer memory, now might be a good time to buy before prices go even higher.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/in-case-we-needed-a-visceral-reminder-just-how-screwed-memory-prices-are-thanks-to-ai-samsung-and-sk-hynix-are-apparently-raising-prices-by-up-to-30-percent/
