Global RAM Shortage Drives Massive Price Hikes as AI Data Centers Compete for Memory Chips

CyberPowerPC Is Latest System Builder to Hike Prices Over Soaring DRAM Costs

CyberPowerPC is the latest PC-related retailer to announce across-the-board price increases due to skyrocketing memory prices. Expect price hikes on "all systems," effective Dec. 7 Memory prices have shot up dramatically in recent months, in some instances by close to 200%. This is driven by a surge in demand for the NAND Flash chips that go into DDR memory to power the tech giants' colossal AI data center projects. Although some firms have stockpiled memory, others are now being forced to raise prices to remain profitable. "Recently, global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500% and SSD prices have risen by 100%," CyberPowerPC said in a statement. "As a result, CyberPower PC will begin price adjustments on all systems on December 7th, 2025." CyberPowerPC clarified in the comments that the increases are temporary and that system pricing would "adjust back accordingly when market conditions change." The thing is, no one knows when that will be, or if it will even happen. Some have warned that the memory shortage could last a decade or more, while other signs suggest the memory shortage will worsen in the short term, with further price rises expected in the new year. CyberPowerPC is just the latest company forced to make price adjustments. Modular laptop maker Framework recently paused its direct-to-consumer RAM sales, AMD is expected to raise prices in 2026 by 10% or more, and Xbox console pricing is expected to rise in due course, too. Memory manufacturers aren't helping matters. They're deliberately not ramping up production to prevent getting stuck with excess stock. They're also focusing more on HBM and low-power DDR memory for data centers, constraining supply of traditional DDR and GDDR memory. Of course, deliberately constraining supply for profit reasons is possible, too. And all of this depends on the AI bubble not bursting.

RAM prices have increased '500%,' PC builder claims -- CyberPowerPC announces price hikes in U.S. and UK starting December 7

PC retailer CyberPowerPC has just announced that it will increase prices for memory modules across the U.S. and the U.K. According to the company's X posts, even though the RAM and SSD prices have begun to climb since October 2025, it will only begin price adjustments this December. Although CyberPowerPC has assured its customers that this is a temporary adjustment and that its prices will drop once the cost has gone down, too, the retailer expects the trend to continue well into 2026 and says that RAM prices have increased by 500% in recent times, along with a 100% increase in SSD prices. This is terrible news for the market, especially as we are near the holiday season when many people tend to upgrade their systems or purchase new computers. Unfortunately, CyberPowerPC isn't the only one reacting to the DRAM and NAND shortage brought about by the massive AI demand. Some shops in Japan have already started limiting the sales of memory modules in early November, while distributors in Taiwan force buyers to match DRAM sales with motherboard purchases. Western retailers have already started being affected by these price increases, too. Micro Center has started removing price tags from its memory kits, with some stores moving from fixed to spot pricing. Even Framework, known for its modular laptops and mini PCs, has stopped selling standalone RAM to avoid scalpers taking advantage of the shortage. The situation has started to become so bad that even a 64GB DDR5 memory kit now costs almost as high as a PS5 Pro. Even big names are not immune to this memory crunch. Asus, MSI, and other manufacturers are now panic-buying RAM stocks in the spot market to stockpile their supplies and supplement their long-term contracts. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that the RAM pricing crisis isn't going away anytime soon, with other experts estimating that this could take up to a decade to resolve, as the massive AI infrastructure buildout continues. You might be a bit too late if you're looking to upgrade your current system, as prices for the best gaming RAM have already started creeping up to unreasonable prices. However, you can still get RAM as part of a pre-built or in a laptop, and Newegg is also bundling RAM with motherboards for Black Friday. We're unsure if these promotions will extend beyond that, though, so if you need more memory, you should purchase it today, as we do not see relief coming on the horizon.

RAM Prices Are Now So High That Some Stores Are Not Printing Price Tags

Epic CEO says high-end gaming could take years to recover from this There is a global RAM shortage that is getting out of hand (and consumers' pockets). As per multiple reports, PC and smartphone memory chips, in particular dynamic random access memory (DRAM), are severely scarce in the market, and it is causing a massive price hike. Some reports claim that RAM prices have tripled in just a year's time. Some computer stores are said have stopped printing price tags due to the volatility in the market. And the culprit? The surge in demand for memory chips in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. RAM Shortage Lead to Unstable Price Hike Bluesky user Steve Lin (@stevelin.bsky.social) shared an image of a Central Computers outlet, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, where the store highlighted that due to global shortage, RAM and related components have witnessed a price hike by 20-50 percent in recent days. As a result, the store has stopped displaying fixed prices. Notice placed by Central Computers Photo Credit: Bluesky/Steve Lin The same was observed by Reddit user u/CassTexas in a different computer store. This situation is said to be occurring across the globe, even if some regions might experience a delayed hit due to existing stocks. According to a PCWorld report, a set of two 64GB DDR5 DIMMs are currently priced at $900 (roughly Rs. 80,400) on Best Buy, when the same was priced $155 (roughly Rs. 13,900) 18 months ago. Even more strikingly, The Verge reports that prices of 32GB memory chips for PC have tripled in just three months, going up from $130 (roughly Rs. 11,600) to $440 (roughly Rs. 39,300). The impact of this volatile pricing is also being felt in all allied sectors. Speaking exclusively with Gadgets 360, iQOO CEO Nipun Marya, said, "Samsung increased the prices [of memory chips] by 60 percent from September to November." As a result, the company was not able to keep the price of just launched iQOO 15 low, and it was set at Rs. 72,999 for the base variant with 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. According to a Tom's Hardware report, Valve has not finalised the price of the recently unveiled Steam Machine due to the same price hike. Nvidia and AMD are also reportedly planning to hike the prices of their GPUs by 10 percent, due to the shortage. Rumours also claim that Microsoft could be forced to again hike the prices of Xbox to mitigate component costs. Why Are RAM Prices Skyrocketing? Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post, "RAM price increases will be a real problem for high-end gaming for several years. Factories are diverting leading edge DRAM capacity to meet AI needs where data centers are bidding far higher than consumer device makers." The reason behind this massive shortage and the price hikes are said to be AI-related. The recent push by major corporations, such as Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and others, that are actively building new data centres to handle the increasing requirement of compute, or processing power, for their chatbot and various productivity tools, is said to have created the shortage. The AI infrastructure expansion is not going to stop anytime soon. So, it is difficult to say when a price correction for memory chip can be seen. Whether it is a temporary situation and an increase in production could reverse the price impact, or if natural resources scarcity could further push this shortage, can only be determined in the days to come. So, in the coming months, consumers should prepare themselves for inflated prices of smartphones, laptops, PCs, and gaming consoles.