Real Reason RAM Prices Are Skyrocketing (and Getting Worse)

Take a look at this line. In early 2025, an 8GB stick of DDR5 RAM would cost you between $60 - $90. But almost 12 months later, that same stick is going for over $300. That’s basically a 3.3x jump in less than a year… So what’s causing this sudden spike? It’s probably not what you

think. This is the real reason RAM prices are skyrocketing and why it’s about to get even worse.

think. This is the real reason RAM prices are skyrocketing and why it’s about to get even worse.

Gamers and PC builders were the first ones to feel the effects. When you’re buying 16, 32, 64 gigs of RAM or even more at a time, you’re definitely going to notice. That

budget PC you were planning that was supposed to cost under $1,000 is now either a few hundred dollars more, or you’re stuck with less power for the same price.

RAM is usually sold in memory sticks, and it’s available at just about any electronics store - or at least it was. Now, the shelves are empty. The prices are five or even ten times what people are used to seeing, and the few sticks available are locked behind the store’s main desk to prevent theft. When customers can’t find what they need, they’re forced to pay even higher premiums from online sources - sometimes with questionable results.

And this is the first pressure point - everything else stacks on top of it.

The biggest culprit, as it seems like the case with everything these days, is AI. The arrival of Chat-GPT in 2022 seemed like a miracle - a website that could give you anything you wanted with a little typing. Fried chicken recipe? Niche story about your two favorite characters on a date? An

little typing. Fried chicken recipe? Niche story about your two favorite characters on a date? An

image of your little sister being hugged by her favorite cartoon character as a cheap and easy birthday present? All possible, and completely free of charge! It seems too good to be true.

birthday present? All possible, and completely free of charge! It seems too good to be true.

That’s because it is.

Nothing in life comes free, and that includes AI. Chat-GPT is a predictive language model that uses incredibly powerful data centers to collate information from around the internet, filter it, and predict what word should come next. And with millions of people using it every single day, that’s a massive drain on every resource - water, electricity, and computer memory. Especially once rival chatbots Gemini, Grok, and more joined the party.

And that RAM has to come from somewhere.

AI is increasing the demand for RAM, but it’s not the whole reason the prices are going up.

That’s more complicated, and more internal. And it all comes down to the decisions made by the corporate CEOs. To keep the AI chatbots running, the companies behind them have to build data centers that can funnel all the queries and process them - all without slowing down the website. That’s been a massive drain on the power grids in some neighborhoods - but

the website. That’s been a massive drain on the power grids in some neighborhoods - but it’s also meant that a whole lot more data needs to be available for those centers.

And that means the RAM supply is being bought - before you ever get the chance.

Corporations buy in bulk, which means they might order hundreds or thousands of the same memory sticks that you need. And while the computer and gaming stores would love to sell you that RAM, they might never get the chance to order it. The manufacturer is, of course, going to choose to go with the massive contract from the billion-dollar corporation over the smaller order from Gamestop - especially when there’s a limited supply available.

Think of RAM production like a highway with a fixed number of lanes. If massive trucks take over the road, everyone else slows down - no matter how badly they need to get through.

But AI isn’t buying up your gaming memory sticks - not exactly. Because this is where things start getting worse.

A DDR5 RAM stick, which improves on regular RAM by reducing power consumption and increasing bandwidth, was a huge step up when it was released in 2020. It quickly became the standard for those who need it to keep their gaming rig running. But for the AI data centers that are becoming indispensable for these massive corporations, these options are next to nothing. These companies

need something bigger and more powerful, and they find it in High Bandwidth Memory.

And the more powerful option might be crowding everything else out of the market.

HBM manages to get higher bandwidth than DDR5, and does it in a smaller package. It stacks

up to Dynamic Random Access Memory circuits on a single chip, and can be connected directly to a computer’s memory controller. This makes it incredibly useful for a powerful computer - such as one linked directly to a massive data center. This has led many of the biggest AI companies to develop chips aimed directly at this function. The result is that demand is higher than ever… And it’s all coming back to haunt you.

Every time there’s a new shiny option in the market, it’s bad news for everyone who likes the old reliable. Gamers know this all too well. Maybe you had a favorite game system that you had hundreds of games for, but then suddenly a new system made its debut.

It didn’t matter if you wanted to stick to the old option, you were essentially forced into adopting the new system if you wanted to stay up to date on your favorite game series.

But that may not be an option for many people.

HBM isn’t just newer and faster, it might be the only option that’s capable of keeping up with the massive new demand from AI data centers. HBM is wildly profitable because the biggest companies in the world not only want to buy up the supply, they want it to get even faster and more powerful - and they’re willing to pay handsomely for that.

Businesses are shifting their focus heavily towards this new development in memory, and that means they’re reducing production of the more accessible, affordable DDR5.

If one product earns several times more money using the same factories, the cheaper product doesn’t just lose priority - it starts disappearing. And

that’s not the only bad news for those looking to buy memory - this next one might be even worse.

Because this is the part most people miss.

The demand for AI servers is growing by the day, and a lot of people are worried that it’s going to grind the entire digital infrastructure to a halt. It’s very easy to assume that this is because of the people casually using AI for

halt. It’s very easy to assume that this is because of the people casually using AI for everything. The fact is, it’s everywhere - including in many big corporations.

everything. The fact is, it’s everywhere - including in many big corporations.

And they need memory too.

While the biggest AI servers are run by tech companies, it’s hard to avoid the technology at all these days. You can log onto a website for a health care service, and be greeted by a surprisingly sophisticated chatbot talking you through your appointment.

Many offices are using AI to filter through hundreds of applications - and even send automatic rejection letters. All of these functions are using Large Language Models, or LLMs, to power the service, usually a smaller-scale one - but sometimes in conjunction with the big services. And they all have data demands.

And that’s one of the big reasons why your memory prices are skyrocketing.

AI servers aren’t just using HBM anymore - much as they would like to. The demand for HBM has gone up so much that only the biggest companies can often get ahold of it. That means

that many of the smaller AI servers need to settle for what they can get - and that’s the DDR5 memory sticks that the average person is relying on for their home rig.

The demand keeps sliding as the massive memory crunch spreads through the market. Each client

finds themselves settling - until there’s nothing left at all for the little guy.

This is where the avalanche starts - when enterprise demand spills into the consumer supply entirely.

The little guys have to fight each other. It becomes a vicious cycle. The HBM chips go to the biggest buyers, the massive companies building data farms. That leaves the smaller large-scale buyers fighting for scraps, and they buy up the supply that would have gone to the gaming and computer stores. And that leaves empty shelves for the individual buyers, who are forced to go looking for second-hand sources online - which

often provide less-than-ideal quality, or sky-high prices that start to feel like price-gouging. But for those who need it for their business, there’s little choice.

price-gouging. But for those who need it for their business, there’s little choice.

But can’t they just make more? That’s the next ugly truth about why RAM prices are rising - and where the system itself becomes fragile.

RAM is one of the most important components in the computer world. And that makes it all the more shocking that there are only three major companies producing it. One is the household name Samsung, which has been key to the computing world for decades now, producing the majority of the customer-facing RAM products. They have some competition in the South Korean company SK Hynix, which is also one of the world’s largest semiconductor producers. The third company,

Micron, is a lesser-known American-based company specializing entirely in memory and data storage.

But the market is about to be shaken up in a big way.

These three companies have all seen their production taxed heavily in recent years.

Demand for their products exploded and customers had to compete with mass buyers for the available supply. But at least one of the companies decided that they can no longer please all

supply. But at least one of the companies decided that they can no longer please all comers. Micron sent chills down the spines of gamers everywhere at the beginning of December

comers. Micron sent chills down the spines of gamers everywhere at the beginning of December 2025 when they announced they were effectively getting out of the customer market entirely.

They’re now shifting their entire business model towards AI-driven data centers.

And this means a bad situation is about to get worse.

The limited supply of sources customers have for their RAM is about to shrink from three to two - and with that the competition for what those companies will put out is about to increase. And this also raises the dreaded “M” word - Monopoly.

One of the reasons the government tries to prevent monopolies is because without competition, companies can jack up prices to get every last dime out of a customer. But what happens when a monopoly happens accidentally? The government can’t compel tech companies to sell to customers - not when they have a new, much more lucrative master to serve.

When only a few valves control the entire flow, even a small adjustment sends prices surging everywhere downstream. And there’s one more component in this that means as bad as things are, they might be about to get even worse.

This isn’t why prices exploded - but it explains why they may never fully come back down.

There’s a shortage of RAM at the moment, but that might come down to another shortage.

And it could be a ticking time bomb. RAM relies entirely on one of the most powerful, versatile tools in all of computing - the semiconductor. These integrated circuits, also known as microchips, are the backbone of just about every digital product these days - and that includes memory sticks and other RAM sources. This creates

a bottleneck when production is behind, and that may be about to get much worse.

Because those semiconductors are only made in a few places.

There’s one country that’s the semiconductor backbone of the world - if you consider it a country. Taiwan has turned into a tech paradise despite its independence still

country. Taiwan has turned into a tech paradise despite its independence still being hotly contested by China. Today, the small island nation produces over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and is key in supplying companies like Apple and AI powerhouse NVIDIA. But that could change in a hurry - if China invades, the entire world’s supply of this vital tech component could be in danger.

And things could go bad in more ways than one.

China no doubt hopes to capture the production facilities, gaining control of the supply chain.

It’s not clear if this invasion is likely to happen any time soon, but China has been gaming it out for some time - and so has the rest of the world. This is so much of a threat that many western analysts have suggested destroying the factories in the event of a Chinese invasion, to ensure that if we can’t get the chips, China can’t either. One way or another,

this is an apocalyptic scenario for the global computing scene.

One which the big guns are trying hard to avoid.

There has been a big rush to expand semiconductor production in recent years, with China stepping up its own pipeline and South Korea and Japan getting in on the game. However,

a war could just as easily disrupt their own production. The US has been moving some of its own production back home for greater security, but it’ll be a while before production levels hit a point where it could make a dent in the market - and unfortunately, this is happening just as demand increases and sends prices sky-high.

And it’s not likely to be resolved any time soon.

The demands for RAM are continuing to build, and they’re not likely to slow down any time soon - unless some politicians have their say. Some U.S. lawmakers have

advocated for a national moratorium on data centers as part of an anti-AI push, although it’s unlikely they are thinking of the gamers here. However, both sides of the political spectrum have largely embraced tech advancement, including AI. Which means that the little guy will likely continue to get squeezed out of the RAM market - unless they have deep pockets.

Taken together, these forces don’t just raise prices - they lock them in. Limited capacity,

redirected production, concentrated suppliers, and AI demand colliding all at once. That’s why RAM didn’t just get more expensive. It snapped.

AI is just one area where things are changing fast, so check out “Why 2026 Will Be the Worst Year EVER” for the grim forecast, or check out this video instead!