You open a shopping tab to add 32 GB of RAM to your PC, and the price looks like a typo. The SSD you bookmarked last year has nearly tripled. Nothing is wrong with your browser. Memory got expensive, fast.
The short answer: AI data centres are buying memory chips faster than factories can make them, so the big makers are serving servers first. Measured prices for RAM and SSDs have doubled or worse in a year, and laptops, tablets and phones are passing the cost on. Every major forecaster expects prices to stay high through 2027. If you need something now, waiting is unlikely to pay.
What has actually gone up
Start with measured changes. SK hynix's third-quarter results, reported on 28 October 2026, show its average DRAM selling price rose by a high-20s percentage in a single quarter, and NAND by a mid-20s percentage. Its operating margin hit about 80 percent.
A TrendForce note from 20 October puts DRAM contract price rises at roughly 80 percent in the second quarter and 40 percent in the third. Shops followed with a lag.
| Item | Before | Now | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2 TB SSD | $129 (Oct 2025 sale) | $365.99 | Price tracker, 27 Oct 2026 |
| Four 2 TB NVMe SSDs, average | $168.75 (Nov 2025) | $357.50 | Gamers Nexus, Mar 2026 |
| Cheapest 32 GB DDR5 kit listed | Not tracked by this source | $499 | Tracker, 11 Oct 2026 |
| Raspberry Pi 5, 16 GB | $145 (Dec 2025) | $205 | Feb 2026 price list |
| MacBook Neo | $599 | $699 | Apple, June 2026 |
Why: the chips went to the data centre
The factories that make your laptop's memory also make the high-bandwidth memory inside AI accelerators and the server DRAM around them. In its 30 September outlook, TrendForce says server DRAM will stay undersupplied in the fourth quarter as suppliers shift capacity to server products, which leaves phone and PC supply tighter.
Storage follows the same logic: TrendForce expects enterprise SSD bit demand to grow more than 80 percent in 2026. Consumer drives get what is left.
Two signals show how locked-in this is. SK hynix told investors its DRAM and HBM volumes are effectively sold out through 2029, a figure that includes volumes still under negotiation, with long-term agreements already covering more than half its 2027 and 2028 capacity. And Micron closed its Crucial consumer brand, ending retail RAM and SSD sales in February 2026 to serve bigger customers.
How it reaches your phone and laptop
Device makers absorbed the first rounds, then stopped. Apple raised Mac and iPad prices in June 2026, saying it had never seen a component price rise this much, this quickly. The 512 GB MacBook Air went from $1,099 to $1,299.
At the budget end the squeeze is harsher. IDC's August 2026 forecast says memory costs are up over 300 percent in a year, the average phone will sell for $581 in 2026, up 27.6 percent, and shipments will fall a record 16.7 percent. Phones under $100 fell almost 60 percent in the second quarter. IDC's Francisco Jeronimo: the era of the cheap smartphone has ended.
PCs are on the same path. Gartner's February 2026 outlook expected PC shipments to fall more than 10 percent, HP said DRAM had become 35 percent of its PC build cost, and Gartner's Ranjit Atwal warned that sub-$500 PCs would stop being viable. TrendForce also notes PC makers trimming SSD capacities to hold sticker prices.
What the forecasters say comes next
These are predictions, revised upward all year, so hold them loosely.
- TrendForce, 30 September: conventional DRAM contract prices up another 10 to 15 percent in the fourth quarter, NAND up 15 to 20 percent.
- Gartner, February: DRAM and NAND for PCs and phones up a further 130 percent by end 2026; the shortage could run to the end of 2027.
- IDC, August: memory prices keep rising until at least 2028, and phone prices are not expected to fall back once set higher.
- SK hynix, October: more than half of 2027 and 2028 output already under contract.
No major forecaster predicts a return to 2025 prices in 2026 or 2027. The range runs from "slower increases" to "flat and high".
Buy now or wait: a checklist
- Need it in the next three months? Buy. Fourth-quarter forecasts are still up, and a 10 or 15 percent sale does not undo a doubling.
- Building a PC? Buy RAM and the boot SSD first, since those are the parts still climbing. Bulk storage can wait.
- Choose the memory you will need in 2028, not the minimum. Upgrading later means buying at tomorrow's prices, and many laptops solder RAM.
- Laptop or phone buyer: compare the base model's RAM and storage with last year's. A same-price model with half the storage is a hidden price rise.
- Not urgent? Keep the device you have. A Windows 10 PC can stay patched to October 2027, and most phones still have years of security updates left.
Frequently asked questions
Will Black Friday fix this?
It will shave something off, but retailers discount from today's cost, not 2025's. A seasonal sale is a small saving against a price that has roughly doubled. Buy on a sale if you see one; do not wait for one to justify waiting.
Is DDR4 a cheap escape hatch?
Not really. Gamers Nexus found DDR4 spot prices had risen about nine times from their earlier level by March 2026, more than DDR5, because production is winding down. If your current board takes DDR4 and already has enough, keep it. Do not build a new DDR4 system to save money.
This is a supply shock with a known cause and no quick fix, so stop trying to time it. Decide what you need for the next three years, buy that once, and let the data centres fight over the rest.
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