Memory Prices Skyrocket as AI Data Centers Consume Silicon Supply, Leaving Consumers Behind

This Is the Best Price on Memory You'll Find Until After the Great AI Rug Pull

Hard drives, RAM, and SD cards have skyrocketed in price over the last six months as memory-hungry AI data centers consume even more silicon wafers in pursuit of a workable business model. As with most rug pulls, consumers like you and I are left holding the bag (in more ways than one), which so far means the price of memory. It's Prime Day though, and there are some deals that bring prices back down to something like reality. The best I've seen is on Samsung's 2-TB 990 Evo Plus SSD, which is down to $370. Is that an outstanding deal? Well, yes and no. Abstractly, no, it's not. A year ago this drive was selling for $140. Six months ago it was still only $300. But we live in the real world, and in the real world this drive has spent the last two months hovering at well over $600, so knocking almost $300 of that makes this a deal, such as it is. Given that there's no sign of stopping the AI bubble, I also fully expect this to be lowest price you'll see the rest of the year. The Samsung 990 Pro SSD is our top pick bare hard drive in our guide to SSDs. The NVMe M.2 PCIe drive achieved speeds of 7,458 MB/s reads in my testing, more or less matching the claimed 7,450 MBs / 6,900 MBs read/write speeds. That kinds of speed makes this drive ideal for intensive tasks, like editing video or gaming. Just promise me you won't run a local AI on it. Please, don't encourage them. The deal I've linked to here is the 2-TB version, but there is a 4-TB version available for $885 and a 1-TB version on sale for $220. There are faster drives on the market, but I find that beyond the speed of this drive, there is a diminishing return in the speed vs price curve, especially these days. I've been using this one as my main drive for several months months now and it works great for editing 5.2K video footage from my GoPro and compiling software. My favorite part? It generates very little heat. The good news about SD cards is so far they haven't taken off quite like SSDs or RAM, though they are definitely going up in price, though for the most part they're still reasonable. While there are cheaper SD cards to be found, this is the only SD card I put in my cameras and has been the only SD card I've shot with for going on ten years now. I have one card that dates from 2017 or so and is still going strong (knock on wood), which I can't say about any other brand or SD card. Lexar's gold cards are plenty fast (I've shot 6K video on these cards with no issue) and offer enough storage (up to 512 GB) for even the most demanding users. If this one is still a little steep for your budget, the Lexar Silver cards are on sale as well, with the 128-GB version going for $49 ($16 off). The Silver aren't nearly as fast, which is why they're so much cheaper, but they're find for less demanding uses (like still photos or as backup card).

AI Is Driving Storage Prices Up, Samsung T9 1TB at 2000MB/s Just Hit Its Best Price Since the Crisis Started

AI data centers are consuming NAND supply and pushing storage prices up for everyone. AI infrastructure demand has been pushing NAND and DRAM prices upward since the start of the year, and external SSD pricing for consumers has followed. Against that backdrop, the Samsung T9 1TB SSD just hit its best price since the storage price increases began. Amazon has it at $179, down from its $287 standard price, a near record low for this 2000MB/s USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 portable SSD with AES 256-bit hardware encryption, Dynamic Thermal Guard, and drop resistance to 9.8 feet. No Prime membership required. See at Amazon 2000MB/s on a portable drive changes what external storage can do Most portable SSDs top out at 1000MB/s to 1050MB/s on USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections, which is fast enough for file transfers but creates a bottleneck for sustained workloads like editing 4K video directly from the drive, running large game libraries off external storage, or transferring high-resolution photo collections between systems. The Samsung T9 runs at up to 2000MB/s read and write speeds via USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which doubles the throughput ceiling and eliminates that bottleneck for the workflows where it shows up most. For iPhone 15 and 16 users specifically, the T9 supports ProRes 4K at 60fps video recording directly to the external drive, which is the use case that requires sustained write speeds a standard portable SSD can't maintain. Videographers and content creators who shoot on iPhone for professional work need a drive that keeps pace with the data rate ProRes generates, and the T9 is built specifically to handle it without dropping frames or triggering buffer warnings mid-shoot. Dynamic Thermal Guard monitors the drive temperature during heavy use and manages heat proactively to keep the SSD operating at ideal temperatures throughout long transfer sessions. That matters for a drive running at 2000MB/s sustained: sustained high-speed transfers generate significant heat, and drives without active thermal management throttle their speeds to protect themselves, which defeats the purpose of paying for high-speed storage. The T9 maintains its rated speeds even during longer processes rather than starting fast and slowing down. See at Amazon Best price since January on a drive that's getting harder to find cheap AI data center buildout has consumed NAND flash supply at a scale that has pushed consumer storage pricing upward throughout 2025. The Samsung T9 launched at a higher price than what it sold for at its low point earlier in the year, and the current $179 Prime Day price represents the best deal available since the storage pricing pressure began in January. Samsung manufactures its own NAND and DRAM in-house, which gives it more supply chain control than competitors who source components externally, but that advantage doesn't insulate consumer prices from broader market dynamics indefinitely. AES 256-bit hardware encryption protects data on the drive without a software performance penalty, and Samsung Magician Software handles firmware updates, drive health monitoring, and encryption management. The rugged build survives drops of up to 9.8 feet, which covers the falls that happen during travel and on location shoots without requiring a separate protective case. Compatible with Mac, PC, tablet, and iPhone 15 and 16 via the included cable.