Looking to buy a new computer or smartphone in 2026, especially a powerful one with lots of storage and memory? If you haven’t been reading the tech press in recent weeks, you may be in for a nasty surprise.
PC prices have begun climbing as the cost of two crucial components — dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and solid-state storage — rockets. The reason? The “hyperscalers” — including Microsoft, Google and OpenAI — are gobbling up the world’s supply of memory chips to power the gargantuan data centres they are building for future AI workloads.
The only hope for a return to sanity in pricing — which has already surged by more than 250% for DRAM chips — is the collapse of the AI bubble, which is fuelling one of the biggest speculative investment waves in history.
AI needs a lot of memory and there isn’t enough to go around. This is leading to one of the most consumer-hostile hardware cycles in years.
Modern AI infrastructure gulps down not only GPUs (the graphics chips made by Nvidia and AMD), but also vast amounts of high-bandwidth memory and the supporting ecosystem of DRAM and NAND flash (used for storage).
Memory manufacturing is among the most capital-intensive businesses in the world, and a new fabrication plant is not something that can just be spun up because gamers need more RAM. Even existing factories can’t simply be switched over: tooling, yields and product mixes are tuned over long periods. And now the most profitable memory products are not the DDR5 sticks you put in a desktop PC, but the high-bandwidth memory destined for data centres.
Tech research firm TrendForce said last week that conventional DRAM contract prices in the first quarter of 2026 are expected to jump by 55%-60% quarter on quarter, with NAND flash also rising sharply.
It’s not simply that PCs and smartphones will get more expensive. They may also soon offer consumers worse value
For anyone hoping to build or buy a desktop computer or laptop any time soon, this is grim news. Expect entry-level PCs to ship with 8GB of RAM again, even though that’s barely adequate for modern Windows workflows once you add a web browser, Teams and Word/Excel/PowerPoint.
Storage, unfortunately, is heading the same way. TrendForce’s January outlook includes solid-state drive (SSD) contract prices rising sharply, even as notebook demand softens, because suppliers are shifting capacity to higher-margin, data centre-focused products.
Tom’s Hardware reported last week that SanDisk is expected to double the price of certain enterprise-grade 3D NAND soon. So prices are rising across the board.
Then there’s the other problem: graphics cards, which have been getting costlier for years thanks to Nvidia’s pricing power. If DRAM is the bottleneck for PCs, GDDR memory is the bottleneck for high-end graphics.
TrendForce said on January 5, citing industry sources, that Nvidia and AMD are reportedly planning price hikes starting in the coming weeks and floated the eye-watering possibility that Nvidia’s flagship GeForce RTX 5090 could reach as high as $5,000 in 2026. After import taxes, VAT and dealer margin, that’ll work out to R100,000 or more — for a consumer-grade graphics card! It’s madness.
High-end cards are increasingly constrained by memory cost and supply, yet the market has shown a willingness to pay obscene premiums for top-tier performance, including the ability to run complex AI models locally.
The pain won’t stop at PCs. Memory is a major cost item in smartphones, too: LPDDR (mobile DRAM) and NAND storage are core components, and handset makers have limited room to absorb spikes without downgrading what they offer.
Samsung has already warned that the price of its phones is likely to rise soon; Apple and others may do the same. Alternatively, they may keep the headline phone price steady but ship the phones with lower base storage (128GB instead of 256GB, for example).
So, what should PC and smartphone buyers do? If you need a new computer or handset in the next year, there’s a good argument for buying sooner rather than later.
And it’s not simply that PCs and smartphones will get more expensive. They may also soon offer consumers worse value: PCs that ship with 8GB of RAM and a smaller SSD, with manufacturers asking you to pay extra to reach what used to be “normal”.
In a world where AI features are being added to everything and where AI slop is threatening to ruin the web, a memory shortage is exactly the crisis the world doesn’t need right now. We’ll all be holding thumbs that the AI investment bubble pops sooner rather than later. But it might be a long wait.
McLeod is editor of TechCentral
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