AI Is Eating All The Memory
One of the biggest memory manufacturers on the planet, Micron, has confirmed what many PC builders and gamers have already felt in their wallets. Memory shortages are here and they are likely to stick around beyond 2026. If you have been wondering why that 32 GB DDR5 kit suddenly costs as much as a mid range graphics card, this is why.
Micron’s CEO Sanjay Mehrotra explained in a recent earnings call that strong, sustained demand combined with supply constraints is creating a very tight memory market. The key driver is the massive build out of AI data centers. Companies running and training AI models are hungry for DRAM and NAND at a scale the PC market has never needed.
Micron believes that total industry supply of memory will remain well below demand for the foreseeable future. In simple terms there is not enough DRAM and NAND to go around and the factories to produce more cannot be built overnight.
How This Hits PC Gamers And Builders
For PC users this AI memory boom is bad news for pricing. DRAM covers the RAM in your gaming PC, the GDDR on your graphics card and high bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. NAND is the flash storage used in SSDs. Both are affected but DRAM is getting hit hardest.
Micron reported that in its latest quarter it generated 13.6 billion dollars in revenue, up 21 percent from the previous quarter and 57 percent year over year. The real story is in the breakdown. DRAM revenue jumped to 10.8 billion dollars, up 69 percent from last year, while NAND shipments only rose by 22 percent.
That imbalance helps explain what you are seeing at retail:
- Fast DDR4 and DDR5 RAM kits have shot up in price.
- High end kits with big capacities and tight timings can rival the cost of a good graphics card.
- SSDs are getting more expensive too but so far the increases have been more moderate.
Behind the scenes NAND wafer prices are also climbing quickly. Kingston and other SSD brands have warned of sharp cost increases on the manufacturing side, especially in the last couple of months. That pressure eventually flows through to consumer SSD prices.
Micron itself has shifted its focus toward AI customers. It recently shut down its consumer memory brand Crucial so it can concentrate on supplying data centers and big device makers. That means less attention on the DIY PC market and more on massive AI deployments that buy memory by the truckload.
The Micron CEO made it clear that customers will have to adjust their product plans to match the memory they can actually get. In other words, even big companies building laptops, desktops and servers will be constrained by how much DRAM and NAND Micron and others can produce.
Why More Factories Are Not A Quick Fix
If memory demand is so high, why not just build more fabs and flood the market with RAM and SSDs? In practice it is not that simple.
First, building new memory fabs takes years and billions of dollars. The equipment is extremely complex, the processes are sensitive and yield issues can ruin profitability if you move too fast. Second, the major memory manufacturers Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix are very wary of oversupply.
In the past, when memory makers expanded too aggressively, they ended up with more chips than the market needed. Prices crashed, profits vanished and some companies struggled to survive. They do not want to repeat that cycle now, even with AI demand booming.
Samsung and SK Hynix have both warned that tight DRAM supply and high prices could last for years, potentially past 2028. They would rather grow more slowly and keep prices high and stable than build too much capacity and watch the market collapse.
That cautious approach means shortages and premium pricing can last a long time. Even as new fabs come online, AI workloads are growing so quickly that they can easily soak up the extra output.
What This Means For Your Next PC Upgrade
So where does this leave regular PC gamers and builders who just want a smooth 1440p experience and fast loading times?
- Expect elevated RAM prices for multiple years. The combination of AI demand and limited new capacity means cheap memory is unlikely to return soon.
- SSDs will also get pricier, though not as dramatically as RAM unless NAND shortages worsen further.
- Buying earlier can sometimes be smarter than waiting. If you know you will need more RAM or a bigger SSD in the next year, watching a price tracker and jumping on dips could save money versus hoping for a big crash that may not come.
- Be realistic on capacity. For gaming, 32 GB of RAM and a fast 1 TB or 2 TB SSD will still be plenty for a long time. Going beyond that may not be worth the extra cost unless you stream, create content or run heavy workloads.
Micron’s CEO summed it up simply. From data center to edge devices like smartphones and PCs, AI is driving a sharp increase in how much memory every system needs. As long as that trend continues faster than factories can ramp up, PC gamers are going to feel it.
If you are planning a new build or an upgrade, keep a close eye on RAM and SSD prices and be ready to pounce when you see a good deal. In this AI driven memory crunch, timing your purchase matters more than ever.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/micron-says-memory-shortages-will-persist-beyond-2026-but-more-memory-is-essential-for-the-ai-experience/
