The price of DDR5 memory is setting new highs these days as demand badly outstrips supply. In a bid to save money, Meta is recovering legacy DDR4 memory from used servers and is installing it into new machines using its in-house developed Vistara ASIC that enables it to connect old memory modules to its latest servers running AMD EPYC 'Turin' processors that only support DDR5 memory.

Interestingly, Meta is not the only company developing such a solution. Panmnesia, a startup from South Korea, has developed an off-the-shelf CXL controller and switch that enables servers to attach considerably larger memory pools without extending latency, which differentiates Panmnesia’s solution from competing CXL offerings.

Custom ASIC enables DDR4 memory to work with new servers

Vistara is Meta’s first-gen custom CXL memory expander ASIC designed to attach outdated DDR4 memory to modern servers. The chip implements a CXL 2.0 Type-3 memory expander over a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface and bridges standard DDR4 RDIMMs to host processors. Each ASIC supports two independent 72-bit DDR4 memory channels and can provide up to 256 GB of capacity using 64 GB DIMMs. At present, Meta deploys 128 GB per ASIC using 32 GB DDR4 modules recovered from decommissioned servers.

Meta deploys Vistara in its MemServer platform, where two ASICs connect to a single 158-core AMD Turin processor over PCIe 5.0 x8 links. Each server combines 768 GB of DDR5-6400 local memory with 256 GB of CXL-attached DDR4-2400, which expands memory capacity to 1 TB. The software stack transparently exposes CXL memory as a separate NUMA node and enables Linux to migrate cold pages to the slower DDR4 tier (with 76 GB/s of bandwidth) and retain frequently accessed data in local DDR5 (with 614 GB/s of bandwidth).

The ASIC is based on three RISC-V processor cores for secure boot, device initialization, firmware management, and health monitoring. Meta claims it has optimized its CXL controller and memory pipeline to reduce protocol overhead, minimize queuing delays, and lower idle round-trip latency to around 50ns. The chip also incorporates advanced reliability features, including Reed-Solomon two-symbol error correction and x4 chip-kill support.

Not only Meta's Vistara

Meta is not the only company that wants to attach legacy DDR4 memory to newer servers that rely on DDR5 memory and save some money. While Vistara is available exclusively to Meta, there is a new CXL expander solution from Panmnesia that will be available to other companies.

"There has been a perception that putting a switch between the CPU and devices makes it hard to meet the memory-access latency these systems expect, so directly attached multi-headed devices (MHDs) stayed the norm even though they were harder to scale," said Myoungsoo Jung, chief executive of Panmnesia. "Our work shows this is not an inherent limit of CXL or CXL switches — it is a trait of early-stage CXL, and one that fades as the standard and the products around it mature. With a fabric switch that carries our next-stage CXL controller, scalability, low latency, and stable performance can come together."

CXL is a protocol that sits on top of the PCIe physical interface. As a result of this, many early CXL implementations were built by modifying existing PCIe IP, which is why such implementations inherited architectural characteristics optimized for PCIe rather than for memory-semantic communications, which added substantial latency, according to Panmnesia. By contrast, its new CXL controller IP features a redesigned data path that replaces separate per-layer buffers with shared buffers to eliminate much of the synchronization overhead. In addition, it features additional latency optimizations throughout the protocol stack that offset the additional hop introduced by the switch.

The accompanying CXL fabric switch introduces Port-Based Routing (PBR), which removes the tree-topology limitations of conventional Hierarchy-Based Routing (HBR) used by PCIe and early CXL implementations. The fabric switch still supports both PBR and HBR to enable flexible system topologies, optimized traffic routing, and stable performance. In practice, it enables companies like Meta to install more DDR4 memory into their modern servers without major performance degradation because of high latency.

Panmnesia claims that while early CXL deployments could connect only a handful of compute nodes to shared memory pools, its fabric scales to up to 64 nodes, which means greater flexibility for hyperscalers that tend to run thousands of servers, but which now have to rationalize usage of expensive DRAM.

Panmnesia says its next-generation CXL technologies are progressing toward commercialization. The company has pre-release silicon for its PCIe 6.4/CXL 3.2 Fusion Switch and has completed development of its PCIe 7.0/CXL 4.0 Combo IP, which supports the latest features introduced by the CXL 4.0 specification.

In a world where memory is no longer a commodity but a strategically valuable asset, customers are eager to sign long-term supply agreements (LTAs) with their suppliers to ensure a steady supply of 3D NAND and/or DRAM. Micron this week announced that it had signed 16 strategic customer agreements (SCAs), 14 of which are worth around $100 billion. Furthermore, the company expects to receive cash deposits and other commitments worth $22 billion, but has warned there is no foreseeable end in sight to the RAM crisis driving up PC component prices.

“14 of the 16 SCAs that we have signed have a cumulative revenue at minimum price per our contracts of approximately $100 billion over the remaining agreement term,” a statement by Micron reads. “Under the SCAs we have signed so far, we project to receive cash deposits and related financial commitments of $22 billion.”

Based on Micron’s claims, the company has about $100 billion of guaranteed baseline revenue already locked in under 14 of those 16 strategic customer agreements, assuming customers only buy the minimum committed volumes and only pay the minimum contract price. In reality, Micron can earn more if customers buy higher volumes or pay higher prices. Furthermore, Micron expects customers who signed these long-term SCAs to put up real money up front — or make equivalent binding financial commitments — as part of reserving future memory supply.

Micron claims it has signed strategic customer agreements with four 'very large customers' and three 'medium-sized customers,' which means that the contracts were inked with clients that previously did not commit to LTAs. The contracts are signed with a five-year term (except the automotive LTAs, which have a term of three years), from calendar 2026 to calendar 2030.

Micron claims that memory supply will be insufficient in 2027 and may improve gradually only in 2028. To that end, it is not surprising that its clients are willing to sign LTAs for 3D NAND and DRAM to ensure that they have enough memory for their products.

"With respect to supply, our customers are recognizing that supply shortages in memory and storage will take considerable time to improve," said Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, in prepared remarks. "Even as we expect industry supply to improve gradually in 2028, we currently do not have line of sight as to when memory supply will be able to catch up with increasing demand."

Normally, Micron and other memory producers inked LTAs with select clients only (read: with Apple, Nvidia). 16 LTAs is a lot for this kind of arrangement, and this looks like a business model shift for the company. It is noteworthy that the 16 signed contracts represent roughly 20% of Micron's DRAM volume and 33% of the company's NAND volume over the period through 2030. That said, Micron may sign more LTAs with more companies.

DDR2 contract prices rose 55% to 60% in the second quarter of the year and are projected to climb another 35% to 40% in the third, according to research published this week by TrendForce, pushing the AI-driven memory shortage onto a standard that first shipped in 2003 and that the three largest DRAM makers stopped prioritizing years ago. The increases come from buyers redesigning products around older memory to secure supply, and from a split among the handful of remaining DDR2 suppliers, with Winbond reducing output as ESMT expands it.

The shortage hasn’t hit DDR2 directly, but Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have steered wafer capacity toward HBM and server DRAM to feed AI infrastructure spending, thinning the supply of mature-node parts, including DDR4. As DDR4 tightened, OEMs and ODMs began specifying DDR3 in its place, and some DDR3 designs were reworked to use DDR2, with each tier of buyers chasing whatever generation it could still source. The result of this is shortages moving down through successive generations, something we saw unfolding back in March, when earlier data showed DDR3 and DDR2 prices rising 20% to 40% in a single month.

This continues the market inversion we’ve watched unfold throughout the year, as DDR4 climbed past DDR5 on price despite being slower and older, and in which module makers and motherboard vendors restarted DDR4 production after the big three had moved to wind it down.

Winbond and ESMT are the two main remaining sources of DDR2 components, and they’re responding to the squeeze in different ways. Winbond is gradually cutting DDR2 production to shift capacity toward higher-margin DDR3, DDR4, and LPDDR4, while ESMT is doing the reverse, concentrating its wafer allocation at foundry partner PSMC on DDR2 to capture the demand Winbond is tossing aside. Taiwanese suppliers, including Nanya, are already struggling to match the volume of orders migrating down from DDR4, and because new capacity depends on slow process migration, Winbond's withdrawal removes supply faster than ESMT can replace it.

Of course, today’s PCs don’t use DDR2, so we’re likely to see the impact of these price increases landing in areas like embedded systems, networking equipment, industrial controllers, automotive electronics, and other long-lived devices that were designed around it and are too costly to requalify on newer memory generations like DDR4 and five.

The spread of rising contract prices to DDR2 suggests that we’re staring down the barrel of a very long-term DRAM shortage. Contract prices across the wider market are still rising with no sign of levelling off, and meaningful new capacity isn’t expected until late 2027 at the earliest as a best-case scenario.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that price hikes on Apple products are unavoidable because the price of memory has increased to a degree that the company must now pass on increases to customers. The outgoing chief executive of Apple did not disclose the scope of the increases or when to expect them to happen, though the warning itself is noteworthy.

Cook said in the interview that price increases had become necessary due to skyrocketing prices of LPDDR and 3D NAND memory, which the company uses in its PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other products. He noted that Apple had attempted to offset rising component costs and protect customers from higher prices, but indicated in the interview that the company could no longer absorb the increases indefinitely. While Cook declined to discuss timing or the magnitude of the planned price hikes, some Apple products may see higher prices sooner rather than later. The company already raised the base price of its Mac Mini last month and eliminated its highest-end model.

TechInsights estimates that Apple will need to hike the price of a flagship iPhone Pro model by about $270 to maintain its current gross margins, which could push flagship iPhone pricing into a substantially higher price band. To make matters worse, Apple faces rising DRAM requirements as it expands memory-hungry on-device AI capabilities.

Apple is a unique company in the sense that it is both one of the world's largest suppliers of smartphones and one of the industry's biggest PC OEMs. Still, its Mac business is negligible compared to the iPhone business.

Memory makers are more inclined to ship non-volatile NAND memory to smartphone makers as they can ship LPDDR with it, according to Nelson Duann, a senior vice president of Silicon Motion, speaking in an interview with Tom's Hardware. If Duann is correct that NAND makers prefer smartphones because they can bundle NAND and LPDDR sales, then Apple should be among the most favored customers in the industry, not among the disadvantaged ones.

Also, keep in mind that historically Apple has used long-term supply agreements, prepayments, equipment financing, and advance capacity reservations to secure key components, including DRAM, NAND flash, displays, advanced packaging, and even semiconductor foundry capacity. As one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers and semiconductor buyers, Apple is among the few companies capable of negotiating with memory suppliers from a position of considerable strength.

As a result, Apple is not in a situation where it cannot get enough memory; it can probably get more than other suppliers of smartphones and PCs, but it surely has to buy both DRAM and NAND at a premium. That said, it is not surprising that Apple will have to increase prices; what remains to be seen is the magnitude of the increase.

Memory is expensive right now, and there's just no escaping how AI has significantly pushed prices up across the board. Unfortunately, 32GB of DDR5 RAM is now pushing $385 as of this month. This same, exact kit is usually even pricier, costing $439.99 on Amazon, when a year ago, it would have cost less than $100. Memory firms are already warning that costs are expected to go up further, too, with prices likely to double over the next year. With that in mind, this Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 RAM is on sale at Woot for $339.99 right now, and it's the cheapest kit going. If you've decided to bite the bullet before things get worse, this is as good as it gets.

● Check out this deal on Woot

Without a DeLorean time machine, if you need to upgrade or build a new PC, you're going to pay more today than you did back in 2025 or 2024. That doesn't mean that this is a bad option, or make it bad RAM. In fact, the $339.99 price means that, as it stands, this is the cheapest 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM kit you can buy right now on its own. We've tested a slightly different spec of Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 RAM in a review, too, and it scored well, offering great performance, with the same striking black colorway for a gaming build as you'll find here.

So, here we are. Necessity means that, if you need to buy memory, you're going to have to pay current market prices for it, and the best way to do that is to find RAM on sale, like it is here. As mentioned, industry figures are warning that RAM prices are expected to double by the end of the year, bearing in mind they've already increased by 4-500%. Newegg combo deals can sometimes offer better value, but they require you to purchase a number of components together to get the RAM at an effectively lower price, and we've seen the best of these deals dry up over the last few weeks, too. Our RAM price tracker will give you a clear indication of just how bad the market has been for buyers lately: you won't find a single option below its record low price floor, with plenty of the most popular models out of stock.

Back to this Corsair memory, then. You're getting a 32GB kit of Corsair Vengeance RAM, rated at 6,000 MT/s, with CAS latency and memory timings of 38-44-44-96. While it isn't the fastest DDR5 you can buy, this DDR5 kit is a big step up over older DDR4 modules, which would usually see speeds of around 3,600 MT/s at best. This is dual-channel memory, meaning your PC will be able to double the bandwidth between the RAM and CPU to boost frame rates and load times significantly when both modules are installed.

The RAM comes with a solid aluminum heat spreader to reduce high temperatures while you're gaming or working. That'll be useful if you decide to overclock it, as you can with this kit, with support for Intel XMP and AMD EXPO OC profiles when installed in supported motherboards. It has RGB lighting, too, which you can customize using Corsair's iCue app on your PC or laptop.

Nobody wants to pay more, but for now, cheap RAM just isn't an option. The next best alternative if you need to buy RAM for a PC is to buy it on sale, and the $339.99 sale price for this 32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM from Woot is the best you'll find right now. There's a pretty lengthy period for this deal to run for, but it could sell out fast, so keep that in mind if you decide to buy. If it does run out, your next, cheapest option is this Patriot kit for $384.99.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

AMD on Monday announced that it had acquired MEXT, a startup that developed a memory tiering technology that makes NAND flash memory appear as DRAM to the operating system, which enables operators of data centers to save money on DRAM. AMD expects the acquisition to help customers improve system efficiency, lower operating costs, and deploy large-scale workloads more quickly.

As AI models continue to expand and datasets grow larger, memory availability has become an increasingly important factor affecting overall system performance. In many cases, memory resources, not CPUs or GPUs, are becoming a performance bottleneck. Meanwhile, in many cases DRAM is used inefficiently.

MEXT addresses memory efficiency challenges with an AI-based memory tiering technology that moves infrequently accessed data from expensive DRAM to NAND storage, which costs orders of magnitude less per unit of capacity, and in a way that's transparent to applications. MEXT's Predictive Memory Engine continuously analyzes memory access patterns and uses AI models to anticipate which data stored in flash will be needed next. Those memory pages are proactively transferred back into DRAM before applications request them and enable software to access data as though it were in main memory, thus preserving performance levels.

By increasing the amount of usable memory available to applications, MEXT's technology aims to improve utilization of existing infrastructure and at the same time reduce needs for expensive DRAM. This approach can potentially lower total cost of ownership for cloud providers and enterprise customers and enable larger workloads to run on existing hardware. AMD believes that these capabilities can benefit both traditional data center applications and modern AI deployments, where access to large memory pools is often critical for efficiency and scalability.

AMD plans to incorporate MEXT's technology into its data center product portfolio and expand its capabilities to address memory-hungry AI workloads. The company already offers integrated solutions that combine processors, accelerators, networking technologies, and software, so MEXT's Predictive Memory Engine will complement the already broad portfolio.

As an added bonus to the technology itself, AMD gains a team with expertise in memory architectures, infrastructure software, and large-scale computing systems. Terms of the deal are unknown.

Nvidia and SK hynix have inked a multi-year collaboration agreement under which the companies will co-develop next-generation memory technologies for Nvidia's upcoming platforms, and SK hynix will supply them to Nvidia. The deal is designed to ensure that Nvidia will get the memory it needs from a prominent supplier and will guarantee that SK hynix will be able to sell its output in a predictable manner.

The key part of the agreement is indeed the co-development of advanced memory products designed for Nvidia's future platforms. Currently, Nvidia uses HBM, LPDDR5X, DDR5, and 3D NAND memory in various systems, so going forward, SK hynix will develop its new memory with Nvidia in mind. The joint press release says nothing about customization of memory for Nvidia, and while we cannot exclude such a possibility, it looks like the companies will continue to co-develop industry-standard solutions, but will ensure that they are compatible with Nvidia's processors.

In addition, the agreement is intended to address the increasingly long lead times and massive capital expenditures required for the production of advanced types of memory. The two companies will coordinate roadmaps over multiple years. Nvidia will gain greater visibility into future memory availability, while SK hynix secures a guaranteed role in Nvidia's next-generation platforms (i.e., guaranteed demand).

The initial part of the cooperation covers memory destined for NVIDIA Vera Rubin AI systems (HBM4, LPDDR5X, 3D NAND), standalone Vera processors (LPDDR5X), RTX Spark-powered personal computers (LPDDR5X, 3D NAND), and Jetson Thor robotic computing systems (LPDDR5X, 3D NAND).

The deal also extends to semiconductor research and design. SK hynix is deploying Nvidia's CUDA-X libraries to speed up complex chip development workloads, such as technology computer-aided design (TCAD) and computational lithography (CuLitho). In addition, the memory maker is adopting Nvidia PhysicsNeMo to accelerate proprietary simulation software as well as AI-driven physics models used during semiconductor development. In addition, the companies see an opportunity to expand these capabilities into general electronic design automation (EDA) and simulation ecosystems and potentially create tighter relationships within the industry.

Last but not least, SK hynix is creating digital twins of its semiconductor fabs using Nvidia Omniverse and OpenUSD technologies. These virtual facilities enable engineers to model production lines, test changes, and optimize operations before making adjustments in real fabs. The company also plans to use Nvidia's cuOpt and Metropolis platforms to improve the movement of autonomous robots and other factory equipment. In the future, SK hynix aims to connect these digital twins with existing manufacturing software and AI systems and enable them to analyze fab data, automate routine tasks, and help make production decisions.

A coalition of nine US trade associations has urged the Trump administration to take immediate action on what it describes as an emerging memory chip shortage driven by the explosive growth of AI data centers. In a June 3 letter sent to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shared with Tom's Hardware, the organizations — representing telecommunications providers, automakers, medical device manufacturers, and major retailers — warned that AI infrastructure deployments are consuming an outsized share of global memory production, creating supply constraints and price increases that could ripple across large segments of the US economy.

The coalition warned that the AI data center expansion, which has consumed an unprecedented share of global memory capacity, has led to a memory chip shortage that could lead to higher prices for consumer electronics, increased costs for broadband and telecommunications infrastructure, disruptions to automobile and medical device production, and delays affecting federal contractors attempting to fulfill government procurement obligations. The letter argues that these risks are emerging despite billions of dollars of US investment intended to strengthen domestic semiconductor supply chains.

The signatories acknowledged AI's importance but argue it shouldn't come at the expense of the rest of the economy. "While recent developments in AI offer the promise of generational technological advances and are important for US tech leadership, we must also ensure other key industries are not negatively impacted by this disruption in the marketplace," the coalition said.

The organizations are asking the administration to work directly with memory suppliers and major chip buyers to address the imbalance. Their recommendations include accelerating expansion of memory manufacturing capacity in the United States and allied nations, using trade agreements to strengthen supply-chain resilience, ensuring adequate memory supply for non-AI industries, leveraging CHIPS Act programs where possible, and reducing regulatory barriers that may slow capacity growth.

"We urge the Administration to work with memory chipmakers and chip buyers to assess steps that can be taken to address this imbalance in the memory market and protect against harm to consumers, workers, and businesses of all sizes," the letter states.

The warning arrives as memory manufacturers increasingly prioritize high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized memory used in AI accelerators from companies such as Nvidia and AMD. Demand for HBM has surged over the past two years as hyperscalers race to deploy larger AI clusters, prompting memory suppliers to devote an increasing share of their production capacity to AI-oriented products.

Samsung and SK Hynix — which together with Micron control over 95% of global DRAM production — have been diverting wafer capacity toward high-margin HBM for AI accelerators, starving the commodity DRAM and NAND markets in the process. Both companies warned in April that significant shortages will continue through at least 2027. IDC, meanwhile, has already revised its 2026 PC market forecast downward by up to 9% as a direct consequence of memory scarcity and rising prices.

Industry analysts have repeatedly warned for months that AI demand is reshaping the economics of the memory market. While memory shortages have historically been cyclical, the coalition argues that AI infrastructure spending is creating a structural shift large enough to affect industries far removed from data centers. The letter marks the first coordinated, multi-industry push for federal intervention. Whether the administration will respond — and how — remains to be seen.

Representatives told Tom's Hardware at Computex 2026 that counterfeit memory modules with G.Skill and V-Color badges have hit various marketplaces in China, and the problem is widespread enough that V-Color has observed lower sales to certain clients. Fake memory modules are nothing new, but in this case, forged DIMMs reportedly use printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are identical to those used by G.Skill and V-Color, which makes early detection of counterfeit products difficult.

“We have customers telling us that some Chinese manufacturers are making copies of our products, as well as products from other brands, and selling them at lower prices than we do,” a spokesperson for V-Color told Tom’s Hardware. “We do not really know how they are doing it. The PCB looks the same, even the heat spreader looks identical.”

Given the current situation with memory prices, counterfeit memory modules have become a growing problem in Asian online marketplaces, particularly in gray-market and second-hand channels. Recent reports described fake DDR5 modules containing dummy ‘chips’ made of plastic or fiberglass with fake markings, as well as mislabeled modules marked as products from well-known brands. However, the new case is different because forged memory modules use PCBs that are identical to those used by G.Skill and V-Color and use the same heat spreaders and perhaps complex RGB lighting, making distinguishing between real and counterfeit products particularly difficult.

While developing a PCB for an enthusiast-class memory module takes time and money, producing that PCB is fairly easy, as makers of DIMMs use neither complex PCBs nor too complex equipment. Also, developing enthusiast-grade memory modules (ensuring that they run at the right specifications with popular CPUs) also takes time and money. In addition, sourcing chips from DRAM makers or distributors to make fake memory modules is hard, if even possible at all today. Finally, quality control at the chip level and at the module level is relatively costly, and these two are the main value adders when it comes to enthusiast-grade memory. That said, forging high-end memory modules is easy and might be a profitable business, especially if perpetrators have access to second-hand memory chips. Speaking of chips, the V-Color representative could not say which ICs the fake modules used.

“We do not know because we have not had any of those modules in our hands,” the spokesman said. “We only use SK hynix memory, so we cannot say what chips they are using. We have not received any RMAs related to them. Other brands may have received returns and been able to inspect the products, perhaps because the memory chips were different.”

While a representative for G.Skill confirmed that there are counterfeit G.Skill memory modules sold on Chinese marketplaces, he said that the issue has existed forever, so users should buy their high-end DIMMs from official partners and resellers in a bid to avoid the problem.

As the demands of AI continue to consume manufacturing capacity at every level of the PC hardware supply chain, 32GB of DDR5 RAM — broadly understood to be the sweet spot for gaming PCs and enthusiast builds — can no longer be found for less than $375. Well, $374.97 to be precise.

RAM price tracking through 2026 will show you that kits that routinely cost less than $100 just a year ago are now fetching upwards of $240 (16GB). As the AI frenzy has taken hold, retailers far and wide have been pumping up their RAM prices to exorbitant levels. However, there's so much fluctuation and noise that average pricing is now something of a ludicrous fugazi. The going rate for 32GB of DDR5 RAM — the cheapest you can expect to pay — has hovered around $320 for some time, climbing past $350 in recent weeks. Price tracking courtesy of PCPartPicker now reveals the cheapest 32GB DDR5 RAM you can buy is $375. Specifically, four XPOWER kits from Silicon Power will set you back $374.97 thanks to a promo code. You can see the listings yourself below.

• Silicon Power Zenith Gaming DDR5 6000MT/s (PC5-48000) CL36 32GB(2x16GB)
• Silicon Power Zenith RGB DDR5 6000MT/s (PC5-48000) CL36 32GB(2x16GB)
• Silicon Power Pulse Gaming DDR5 6000MT/s (PC5-48000) CL36 32GB(2x16GB)
• Silicon Power Zenith RGB DDR5 6000MT/s (PC5-48000) CL36 32GB(2x16GB)

As you can imagine, this is enormous pricing pressure for enthusiasts trying to build gaming PCs or upgrade their rigs in 2026. A component that once cost less than $100 and was something of an afterthought now costs almost four times as much, and that's before you've even fired a neuron in consideration of aesthetics, timings, or brand. More popular kits from the likes of Corsair and Crucial, or RGB offerings to match the rest of your build, will easily set you back more than $400.

Of course, 32GB is really the minimum sweet spot you should be aiming for when building a PC in 2026. If you did want more capacity, 64GB will set you back an astonishing $679.99. 16GB of RAM as a compromise can be found for $200 at B&H Photo, but with SK hynix warning that manufacturing constraints will persist through 2030, there's no sign of prices letting up so that you can upgrade capacity any time soon.

The humble RAM combo deals we've been highlighting in recent months are a small source of solace for builders, letting you score RAM for less than the $375 going rate if you pair it with a decent motherboard, a processor, or even an entire set of PC components. A theme of ongoing Computex 2026 announcements remains a lack of pricing clarity on lots of PC hardware, including Nvidia's RTX Spark laptops and PCs, as well as new-build systems and, of course, RAM components themselves. Vendors are likely wary of scaring off potential buyers with higher-than-expected prices ahead of release. Perhaps more likely, the prices haven't been set because they're still going up. Storage isn't much better, with SSD price tracking revealing that drives which once cost as little as $38 are now fetching $200.

AMD is making a noticeable effort to keep PC gaming prices down, this week announcing the return of its Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and the advent of a new Ryzen 7 7700X3D. Intel, which warned this week that "something has to give" when it comes to memory prices, also teased dragging out some of its legacy products to give users more options on older memory technologies, namely Raptor Lake and DDR4.

This week at Computex 2026, we saw Nvidia reveal its RTX Spark, and last month, AMD detailed its Ryzen AI Max 400 "Gorgon Halo" lineup, a refresh of the Strix Halo APUs that lifts supported unified memory to 192GB and allows up to 160GB of that pool to be addressed as VRAM. AMD describes the flagship Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 as the first x86 client processor able to run a 300-billion-parameter language model locally, pitching the platform for use cases that need to keep multiple AI agents resident in memory at once.

The market for Gorgon Halo will likely be directly shared with other chips, such as Nvidia's RTX Spark, which debuted at Computex 2026. RTX Spark is also positioned as an on-device agentic computing device. With local AI computing demanding lots of on-device RAM, it poses a difficult issue for device vendors.

DRAM contract prices are forecast to climb another 58% to 63% this quarter, on top of the record 90% to 95% jump TrendForce recorded in Q1, which also saw Nvidia raise the price of its DGX Spark desktop from $3,999 to $4,699, citing memory supply. So, what happens to the dream of accessible local AI compute?

DRAM supply squeeze

The local AI PC has become a category defined by how much memory it carries, and it’s scaling that memory up at a time when memory has never cost more. AMD's three Gorgon Halo SKUs reuse the same Zen 5 cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics, and XDNA 2 NPU as the existing Ryzen AI Max 300 parts, with the Max+ PRO 495 gaining a 100 MHz boost-clock bump to 5.2 GHz, a 40-compute-unit Radeon 8065S, and a 55 TOPS NPU.

Memory capacity has been increased 50% from the 128GB ceiling on Strix Halo, with a leaked PassMark entry putting the 192GB figure as eight 24GB SK hynix LPDDR5X packages on an HP test board, though AMD hasn’t yet confirmed this. Partner systems from Asus, HP, and Lenovo are due in the third quarter of 2026.

It’s all well and good that Nvidia and AMD are releasing machines like the RTX Spark and the Gorgon Halo line-up. However, Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have all shifted the bulk of their wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators because HBM carries far higher margins than commodity DRAM, and the conventional memory supply has tightened as a direct result of this. HP told investors in February that memory now accounts for roughly 35% of the cost of building a PC, up from 15% to 18% a quarter earlier.

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, speaking at Computex 2026 on the show’s official opening day, repeated his position that the shortage will run through 2030, despite the company's intention to double wafer capacity within the next five years. New fabs from all three makers are under construction, but none will reach volume production before late 2027 at the earliest, and most forecasts now predict a structurally higher price floor that persists even after the acute shortage eases.

The 192GB in a Gorgon Halo box, the 128GB in an RTX Spark or DGX Spark, and the LPDDR5X soldered into every AI laptop announced at Computex all come off wafers the memory makers would otherwise sell as HBM. That’s why Nvidia raised the DGX Spark by $700 in February without changing a single spec, and why component makers have begun passing memory costs through directly. One vendor has even taken an extremely on-the-nose approach of adding a flat memory surcharge to every purchase, and in some cases, smaller buyers are now quoted prices that change by the hour.

Bandwidth caps inference speed

A single pool of 192GB would enable an APU to hold a model that would otherwise require a multi-GPU server. While it doesn’t make the model run quickly, dense language model inference reads close to the full set of active weights from memory for every token generated, so generation speed is governed by memory bandwidth divided by the per-token weight footprint, not by idle memory.

Gorgon Halo keeps the same 256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 interface as Strix Halo, which tops out around 256 GB/s in theory and which independent testers have measured closer to 212 GB/s on the GPU. By comparison, the Apple M3 Ultra that AMD and Nvidia are chasing on capacity is rated at 819 GB/s, and an RTX 5090 moves data at 1,792 GB/s.

This gap explains why a dense 70-billion-parameter model fully resident on a Strix Halo iGPU lands in the low single digits of tokens per second, regardless of how much headroom the memory pool has. Our own Corsair AI Workstation 300 review found that Nvidia's slightly higher-bandwidth GB10 pulled ahead of Strix Halo as context length grew, for exactly this reason.

Capacity matters most for mixture-of-experts models, which activate only a fraction of their parameters per token and run far faster than their total size suggests, and for long-context agentic workloads, where it’s KVcache rather than model weights that consume memory. It’s these use cases that AMD’s agentic pitch points at, with leaked details on the next-gen Medusa Halo parts showing a move to LPDDR6 and as much as 80% more bandwidth.

Holding the line on price

Agentic AI is also something of a pricing tool for vendors, beyond describing a workload. A 192GB workstation sold on the promise of running 300-billion-parameter models locally can hold a four-figure price more comfortably than a mini PC sold on cores and clocks, and it justifies loading the most expensive component in the build to its maximum. AMD's Ryzen AI Halo developer box, a 128GB Strix Halo system, opens pre-orders in June at $3,999 through Micro Center, matching the launch price of Acer's GB10-based Veriton GN100 and the original DGX Spark before its increase.

Apple, the one vendor with the scale to hold priority memory allocation, has moved the other way. It pulled the 512GB Mac Studio configuration from sale, raised the price of its 256GB upgrade, and in May removed several more high-memory Mac mini and Mac Studio options as supply tightened.

This shows us beyond doubt that expanding capacity while holding the line on premium pricing is a choice the AMD and Nvidia camps are making, not one that the market is forcing. Whether buyers accept it rests on whether local agentic inference delivers enough value over cloud services to justify the outlay, on machines shipping with memory capacities that outpace the bandwidth that ultimately determines what that memory can do.

SK hynix will double its memory wafer capacity within five years, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters at Computex in Taipei on June 2nd, while repeating his forecast that the AI-driven shortage gripping the memory market will run until 2030. As reported by Bloomberg, Chey declined to put an exact dollar figure on the expansion, saying instead that the company's 2026 spending would climb well above the 30.2 trillion won (roughly $20 billion) it spent in 2025, and confirmed SK hynix has filed to list American depositary receipts in New York this year.

On its own timeline, the pledge will do little to shorten the squeeze. Chey put the lead time for a greenfield fab at more than five years, placing fresh output near the tail end of the shortage window that he’s predicting. This new stance is also a significant departure from his March comments at Nvidia’s GTC conference, where he said a new fab wasn’t planned and that capacity couldn’t be added on demand.

Chey also said the cost of the buildout is difficult to pin down because prices for land, equipment, and electricity keep moving, which is likely why no figure accompanied the announcement. With the company's existing lines already saturated, customers have offered to buy SK hynix's EUV scanners and prefund fab lines as available capacity has fallen to near zero. "Until 2030, there's still some shortage," Chey told reporters

Ultimately, it’s HBM that’s driving the massive gap between wafer supply and demand. HBM consumes far more wafers per bit than standard DRAM and carries the industry's highest margins, so capacity keeps tilting toward them. SK hynix holds about 57% of the HBM market and 32% of global DRAM, and Chey has said he wants the company to become a major HBM supplier for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform and is seeking more manufacturing partnerships in Taiwan beyond TSMC.

But buyers aren’t waiting on new fabs for relief. TrendForce projected DRAM contract prices to rise 63% in the second quarter after climbing roughly 95% in the first, and DDR4 spot pricing ran up around 2,200% over 12 months before a recent decline. Even with capacity doubling, outlooks across the next five years are unchanged, and the market is likely to stay tight for the rest of the decade as things currently stand with AI demand.

If you thought DDR5 was already too expensive right now, Cooler Master and G.Skill have a surprise in store for you. The two manufacturers are partnering up to make "MasterDIMM" — a new line of DDR5 memory kits that come with active cooling and a promise of temperatures that are up to 15 degrees cooler than conventional RAM. These sticks feature a thick heatsink with a fan built-in to emulate a blower-style cooler you see in some GPUs. There are no pricing or availability details yet, but it's not hard to imagine these kits, made for "demanding next-gen systems," will be even pricier than regular DDR5.

MasterDIMM will be properly shown off at Computex 2026 in just a few days, so expect more information then. For now, we know that these are high-end UDIMMs (desktop) that will push the envelope for DDR5 RAM in terms of style. The design of these sticks is very classy, sporting a black and gold aesthetic with part of the copper heatsink visible on the front, along with the fan on the other end. Naturally, they're a little larger than regular DIMM's, so motherboard compatibility remains to be seen.

There are two RGB strips running along the top, also flanked by gold accents, and the whole thing looks oddly similar to a fancy M.2 SSD. The RAM itself is made by G.Skill, while the heatsink is designed by Cooler Master. MasterDIMM will offer speeds up to 6,000 MT/s at CL26 latency with AMD EXPO, or up to 8.400 MT/s on Intel platforms via XMP 3.0. Capacities will scale up to 128GB at the top-end through 64GBx2 configs.

The companies claim the fan inside is whisper-quiet, delivering optimal cooling at just 35 decibels. That's the same noise level as a library. The heatsink and fan combo can drop temperatures by up to 15 degrees Celsius, which would be a remarkable improvement if proven true in testing. Keep in mind that DDR5 RAM, in general, is already rated for operation at up to 95°C, but it stays between 70-80°C in most cases.

Now, this is not the first time someone has put a massive cooler, or even two fans, on some RAM, but it's the most mainstream version of such a combination yet. Both G.Skill and Cooler Master are huge names in the PC hardware industry, so it'll be interesting to see how well this product does. Of course, that depends on pricing, and DDR5 prices are still out of control despite some semblance of the AI boom slowing down as of late.

More than a decade ago, Corsair tried to actively cool memory with its Vengeance Airflow modules, and vendors have tried to fit their DIMMs with creative heatsinks forever. Last year, we even tested a Silverstone AIO that could attach optional fans to itself to cool your memory and SSD.

SK hynix announced iHBM today, a memory heat management technology designed to enhance AI system performance. The thermal packaging solution improves heat dissipation by integrating ICEs (integrated cooling elements) directly into the HBM package. SK hynix says the result is an over 30% reduction in thermal resistance, “ensuring stable operating characteristics even in high-temperature and high-load environments.”

The iHBM architecture embeds non-conductive silicon cooling elements directly into the Die-to-Die Physical Layer (D2D PHY), the critical, high-speed connection interface between the HBM base die and the AI processor, which is prone to high temperature spikes as a result of extreme data traffic. By placing cooling elements in this layer, SK hynix mitigates the severe thermal throttling that cripples AI system performance during heavy computational workloads.

The company believes that structurally preventing thermal throttling will enable next-generation memory layers (targeted for future generations like HBM5) to scale to higher stack heights and sustain maximum data transfer speeds under the heavy computational loads of AI data centers.

“iHBM is the optimal solution for minimizing heat generation developed by combining memory design capabilities and advanced packaging technology,” said SK hynix Vice President Lee Kang-wook. “We will proactively provide the value customers need in the AI environment and further solidify our leadership in AI memory.”

SK hynix plans to apply iHBM technology from next-generation products, such as HBM5, to meet the thermal management requirements of high-performance computing (HPC), AI data centers, and other ultra-high-density and ultra-high-bandwidth environments, thereby improving overall system stability and efficiency.

Heat management is one of the biggest challenges facing HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory) technology. Unlike conventional memory, HBM achieves massive bandwidth by vertically stacking multiple DRAM dies, dramatically shortening the distance data must travel and enabling far higher transfer speeds with better power efficiency.

To minimize latency and feed AI processors fast enough to avoid bottlenecks, HBM is placed extremely close to the GPU or AI accelerator on the same package, connected through a high-speed silicon interposer. However, this dense arrangement also creates severe thermal problems.

The Die-to-Die Physical Layer (D2D PHY) — the ultra-high-speed interface linking the processor and HBM stacks — continuously moves terabytes of data per second. As thousands of signaling lanes and billions of transistors switch at extremely high frequencies, switching losses, leakage current, and electrical resistance generate substantial heat.

The problem is compounded by the processor itself, which already produces enormous amounts of heat. With the HBM stacks packed tightly around the processor, heat accumulates rapidly in a very small area. When temperatures exceed safe limits, the system automatically reduces clock speeds and voltages through thermal throttling to prevent physical damage, lowering overall performance.

SK hynix's new iHBM approach attempts to tackle the problem at the structural level. Unlike conventional HBM cooling designs that primarily dissipate heat indirectly through the core die and surrounding package structures, the company's iHBM architecture instead places Integrated Cooling Elements (ICEs) directly around the D2D PHY region — the exact zone where thermal concentration is most severe. This approach creates a dedicated dissipation path at the source, reducing overall thermal resistance by 30% and allowing the chip to maintain stable operation under the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions that dense AI workloads demand.

SK hynix says the technology can be manufactured at scale using its existing Wafer Level Packaging (WLP) process, which is built on its Mass Reflow Molded Underfill (MR-MUF) packaging technology already used in commercial HBM products. The design is also architecturally compatible with existing System-in-Package configurations, meaning customers can integrate the new thermal capability without major redesigns.

A Redditor has caused a stir by coaxing a workstation build using Optane PMem DIMMs as RAM to run a 1-trillion-parameter LLM. APFrisco explains in a mini tutorial/guide on the Local LLaMA subreddit how they bought some used Intel Optane Persistent Memory, acquired relatively cheaply second-hand, to “run a 1 trillion parameter model (in this case Kimi K2.5) locally at ~4 tokens/second” on their Xeon workstation.

Computer build using Intel Optane Persistent Memory - Can run 1 trillion parameter model at over 4 tokens/sec from r/LocalLLaMA

Central to the headlining feat was the Redditor’s sourcing of six Optane PMem (DCPMM) sticks. The discontinued memory format was designed to bridge the DRAM-SSD divide. While the 768GB of Optane (6x 128GB) does indeed offer far lower latency than the best NVMe SSDs, it is still two or three times slower than DRAM. These characteristics are still rather sweet for LLM inference frameworks, and the second-hand price was “much less than what the equivalent DRAM capacity would cost.” But, alas, Optane is dead, so this is an exotic solution.

APFrisco’s hardware specs were given as follows:

• Intel Xeon Gold 6246 CPU
• Tyan S5630GMRE-CGN motherboard
• Asus Dual GeForce RTX 3060 OC 12GB GPU
• 6x 32GB Samsung 2666MHz DDR4 ECC DRAM sticks
• 6x 128GB Intel Optane DCPMM PC4-2666 NMA1XBD128GQS persistent memory modules
• Western Digital WD SN850X 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD
• ASRock Steel Legend SL-850G 850W 80 PLUS GOLD & Cybenetics Platinum Fully Modular Power Supply
• Silverstone SST-GD08B (Black) Grandia Series Home Theater PC Case

The build was configured with the Optane in memory mode and the Samsung DDR4 as cache.

The software side of the equation relied on the aforementioned Kimi K2.5’s mixture-of-experts architecture. APFrisco used a hybrid GPU/CPU inference methodology with llama.cpp. Also, to optimize processing, the routing components were shoehorned into the 12GB GPU using llama.cpp’s 'override-tensor' flag.

The Redditor is rather proud of the resulting ~4 tokens per second performance. “Given the fact that this is a trillion-parameter frontier-class model running on such a limited hardware budget, I would consider it to be a great success,” writes APFrisco. They go on to lament Intel’s withdrawal of Optane products.

If you are interested in this rig rundown and what it achieved in terms of local LLM inference, you can find some more details about the configuration in the source post. Furthermore, APFrisco sticks around in the comments to answer questions. They also appear to benefit from recommendations about how to achieve even better results, given the foundation they have laid.

The bigger picture, though, seems to be that there is room for a memory product in the chasm between DRAM and SSDs, particularly for LLMs. Many expect that the gap will soon be bridged by the CXL (Compute Express Link) standard, which promises huge pools of affordable, byte‑addressable memory for these kinds of workloads.

In late 2024, China-based ChangXing Memory Technologies (CXMT) began producing DDR5 modules aimed at the consumer market. Since then, the company has even laid out a roadmap that currently puts its max DDR5 capabilities at 8,000 MT/s across 16 Gb and 24 Gb densities. Fast forward to today, and we're finally seeing Chinese DRAM in a mainstream product, more specifically, a Corsair Vengeance DDR5 16GB stick purchased in China by @wxnod, running at 6,000 MT/s with CL36 speeds.

We can see the "CMK5X16G3E60C36A2-CN" part number, where "CN" denotes it's a China-exclusive kit. It's still certified for both Intel XMP and AMD EXPO (since it runs beyond JEDEC speeds), and we also see the rest of the specs printed on the label, such as the timings and operating voltage. There are also "UKCA" and "CE" signs that indicate this kit meets European and British standards for sale in those regions.

The post above shows CPU-Z screenshots clearly revealing that the DRAM powering this kit is from CXMT and not one of the big three memory makers: Micron, Samsung, or SK Hynix. All of those companies are busy selling out their entire production lines to data centers instead, so it makes sense that Corsair is shifting around its suppliers. CXMT might seem like an unusual choice, but the company is well-positioned for this transition.

See, unlike the major DRAM manufacturers, CXMT doesn't even possess the latest cutting-edge tools to produce memory for hyperscalers. The company isn't tied to any data center contracts, so it has, relatively speaking, empty production lines just waiting for customers. And that clientele CXMT seems to be targeting is regular consumers left in the dust by the rest of the RAM industry.

Until now, CXMT has only really sold to local businesses and lesser-known brands, but being featured in a Corsair kit marks a major shift in the landscape. Even if this kit is exclusive to Chinese markets, it's still made by one of the biggest names in consumer memory — a name that people trust. Besides, most customers won't actually check what factory their DRAM chips are coming from as long as the specs seem up to par.

Speaking of which, we're looking at a DDR5-6000 CL36 kit, which is not the fastest, but it's plenty for gaming and daily tasks. There's generally less than 5% difference between a CL30 and CL36 kit at 6,000 MT/s, so if you're saving a lot of money going for the slower latency, it might be worth it in some cases, such as, you know, a RAM shortage. That brings us to the main question: Is this RAM actually cheaper?

There was no explicit mention of a price, so for all we know, Corsair is sourcing cheaper memory from CXMT but still selling it at the same inflated rates. If supply from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron is tight, it makes sense that DRAM bought from those companies would be expensive, but CXMT-made DDR5 should be significantly more affordable for it to matter and make an actual dent in the market.

Moreover, there would be concerns about how stable these modules are and whether they're fit for overclocking. Since a brand like Corsair is backing them up, a customer would expect it to perform just as well as any other Corsair kit. Another post from the same OP shows a similar KingBank-branded DDR5-6000 kit overclocked to 8,000 MT/s with 44-56-56-128 timings at around 1.5V, so there's clearly some potential here.

PC memory manufacturer Team Group has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit to the tune of $1.1 million over allegations it advertised deceptive speeds for its DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 memory products purchased in the U.S. between May 3, 2020, and April 8, 2026. Similar to a recent case involving G.Skill, the lawsuit claims that consumers were led to believe that the advertised speeds on Team Group’s memory kits could be achieved out of the box without requiring BIOS tweaks or overclocking profiles.

It was alleged by the plaintiffs that the company marketed its RAM kits using rated speeds that could only be achieved after enabling XMP or EXPO memory profiles via the motherboard BIOS/UEFI menu. Team Group has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and says that its “products were appropriately labeled and performed as represented.”

An individual can claim as part of the settlement class if they purchased Team Group DDR3, DDR4, or DDR5 memory products while living in the United States between May 3, 2020, and April 8, 2026. The settlement only applies to individual consumers, while purchases made directly by a business, such as a company, LLC, corporation, or partnership, do not qualify for compensation. However, if you personally bought the memory as an individual consumer, you may still qualify even if you later used the product for work or business purposes.

As there is no fixed amount out of the total settlement fund of $1.1 million, the money will be divided among every individual who submits a valid claim. Payments will be made based on how many eligible Team Group DRAM products each person claims. The settlement also clarifies that one may claim compensation for up to five memory products per household without providing proof of purchase, while claims beyond that require supporting documentation.

Eligible customers can head to the Claim Hub website and follow the instructions carefully to file an official claim. You can also submit an objection or exclude oneself from the lawsuit completely. The deadline for the claim is currently set for July 7, 2026.

Earlier this year, G.Skill settled a similar $2.4 million lawsuit involving its DDR4 and DDR5 memory products. Plaintiffs argued that advertised speeds above JEDEC defaults required additional BIOS adjustments and overclocking settings that were not clearly disclosed on packaging or product pages. Most memory kits for modern PC platforms ship with conservative default speeds based on JEDEC standards, while higher advertised frequencies, such as DDR5-6000 or DDR5-7200, require users to manually enable XMP or EXPO profiles. The lawsuit argued that average consumers may not realize these additional steps are necessary to achieve the marketed performance levels.

G.Skill was also required to change its packaging and be clearer about overclocking and BIOS adjustments as part of its agreement. The Team Group settlement doesn't seem to include any such provisions and is rather purely offering a payout to affected buyers.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo say they have demonstrated a non-volatile magnetic switching device capable of flipping states in just 40 picoseconds while consuming unusually little power and generating far less heat than many previous ultrafast switching approaches — potentially addressing one of the biggest problems facing modern AI hardware: the enormous energy and cooling demands created by moving and storing data.

The researchers built the device using an antiferromagnetic material called manganese-tin (Mn₃Sn), then showed that ultrashort electrical pulses could reliably switch its magnetic state while retaining the stored information after power removal. They also demonstrated similar switching using ultrafast photocurrent pulses generated from a telecom-band laser and photodiode, effectively converting optical signals directly into memory-writing electrical pulses.

At its most fundamental level, modern computing is really the science of switching physical states. Every operation inside a computer — whether running a game, training an AI model, opening a browser tab, or loading a file from storage — ultimately involves billions or trillions of tiny physical state changes. Transistors switch on and off, memory cells charge and discharge, cache states update, data moves through interconnects, and storage cells trap or release electrons.

Those switching events are what physically represent binary information. The problem is that switching states requires energy, and almost all of that energy eventually becomes heat. That reality is becoming increasingly problematic in the AI era. Modern AI accelerators process enormous volumes of data. But much of their power consumption comes not just from computation itself, but from constantly moving and refreshing information between caches, memory, storage, and interconnects. As GPU clusters scale to hundreds of thousands of accelerators, power delivery and cooling are becoming some of the industry's biggest bottlenecks.

Current memory technologies all handle switching differently, but each comes with major tradeoffs. DRAM — the main system memory used in PCs, servers, and GPUs — stores information as electrical charge inside tiny capacitors. A charged capacitor represents one state, while a discharged capacitor represents another. However, those capacitors constantly leak charge, meaning the system must repeatedly refresh the memory cells thousands of times per second simply to preserve data. That constant re-switching consumes significant power and generates heat, even when systems are relatively idle.

Flash memory used in SSDs avoids that problem by trapping electrons in floating-gate structures, which retain data without continuous power. On the other hand, changing those states is slower and more energy-intensive, making flash unsuitable for high-speed working memory.

SRAM, used inside CPU caches, achieves extremely fast switching using transistor feedback circuits that continuously maintain state. But SRAM consumes significant chip area and power, making it expensive and difficult to scale to large capacities.

The industry has spent decades searching for a kind of "universal memory" that could combine the speed of SRAM, the density of DRAM, the persistence of flash, and low power consumption. That challenge becomes even harder at ultrafast timescales, where many experimental switching technologies partially rely on brute-force heating to destabilize and flip states rapidly.

The faster the switching, the more severe the thermal problem often becomes. Several previously demonstrated picosecond-scale switching approaches cited in the paper involve temperature rises of several hundred Kelvin during operation.

The Tokyo researchers are instead pursuing a radically different switching mechanism through a field known as spintronics. Instead of storing information as an electrical charge, spintronic devices store information using magnetic states.

Conventional magnetic memories typically use ferromagnets — materials such as iron, cobalt, or nickel in which magnetic moments align in the same direction. The new device instead uses an antiferromagnetic material called Mn₃Sn, where neighboring magnetic moments largely cancel one another out.

Researchers are interested in antiferromagnets because they can potentially switch much faster, resist magnetic interference more effectively, and scale to smaller dimensions without generating large stray magnetic fields.

The researchers fabricated layered Mn₃Sn/Ta structures on silicon substrates and then used ultrafast electrical pulses to flip the material between two stable magnetic configurations, representing binary states.

Crucially, the switching mechanism is not primarily based on heating the material. Instead, the pulses generate what is known as spin-orbit torque — a process that transfers angular momentum directly into the magnetic structure itself, flipping the magnetic state without requiring extreme temperature spikes.

That distinction is the paper's central claim. The research is not merely about creating a new kind of memory, but about finding a potentially more energy-efficient way to switch digital states themselves. Currently, almost all electrical energy consumed by computing hardware eventually becomes heat. Modern AI infrastructure is already hitting serious power and cooling limits as GPU clusters scale to hundreds of thousands of accelerators.

The team's device reportedly achieved switching in just 40 picoseconds — roughly 1,000 times faster than typical nanosecond-scale memory switching. Normally, pushing switching speeds into the picosecond regime causes heat generation to spike dramatically, as systems often rely partly on intense transient heating to destabilize states quickly enough for reversal.

However, simulations in one device configuration showed temperature rises of only about 8 K (14.4°F) during switching, supporting the researchers' claim that the mechanism relies primarily on direct angular-momentum transfer rather than brute-force thermal switching. This also confirms that the Mn₃Sn device may avoid much of the heat problem that has plagued earlier ultrafast memory research.

The optical switching demonstration may also prove important for future data-center architectures. The researchers generated 60-picosecond photocurrent pulses using a telecom-band laser and photodiode, then used those pulses to switch the device's magnetic state.

That could eventually align with broader industry efforts toward optical interconnects and silicon photonics, where hyperscalers are increasingly seeking ways to move information using light rather than conventional electrical signaling.

If technologies like this ever become commercially viable, they could theoretically reduce memory refresh overhead, lower cooling requirements, reduce idle power draw, and potentially blur the distinction between memory and storage. For personal computing, that could someday translate into systems that retain working memory contents without standby power, resume instantly, and generate less heat. For hyperscale AI infrastructure, the implications would center more around power efficiency and cooling reduction across massive GPU clusters.

For now, however, the technology remains firmly experimental. The current devices are tiny laboratory structures rather than manufacturable memory chips, and the paper notes that the present implementation still requires an external bias magnetic field for deterministic switching — a major practical limitation for commercial hardware.

Manufacturing scalability, endurance validation, cost competitiveness, and integration with existing CMOS manufacturing processes also remain unresolved. The history of computing is full of promising "next-generation memory" technologies that never displaced mature DRAM or NAND ecosystems. Even so, the work highlights the growing reality in the computing industry that future performance gains may depend less on shrinking transistors and more on reducing the energy required to physically switch, move, and store information.

Don't walk, run (to your PC) and hit that order button on a deal that cuts the cost of buying a new stack of DDR5 memory modules by $70. The folks at B&H Photo have slashed the price of this Corsair Pro Overclocking DDR5 32GB (2 x 16GB) to just $329.99 right now. With RAM prices still impacted by the AI-fueled boom, a $70 price cut on RAM, given current market prices, is one you can't ignore, but you'll need to be quick, as this deal is likely to run out soon.

● Check out this deal at B&H Photo

Unfortunately, the ultra-low prices we saw last year are a distant memory (no pun intended). The term skyrocketing might be a cliché, but it's unfortunately true, with RAM like this significantly more expensive than it would have been 12 months ago. Those old prices aren't coming back any time soon, with hardware manufacturers like Framework warning about even more price rises this year. Right now, $239.99 is a bargain, with the next-best option with equivalent speeds costing you at least $40 more, and prices likely to go up, not down in the next 12 months.

This particular kit comes with two 16GB modules, with rated speeds of 6,400 MT/s. That's a big speed jump over older DDR4 memory, where you'd see max speeds of 3,600 MT/s. As our Corsair Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 review shows, however, you can push this RAM even further, as it's overclockable using Intel XMP and AMD EXPO OC profiles on motherboards that support it. For enthusiasts, you can push this RAM to speeds of 6,600 MT/s or higher, making it an ideal option for seriously powerful gaming PC builds.

You're getting CAS latency and memory timings of 38-40-40-84 with this Corsair Pro Overclocking RAM kit, operating at a voltage of 1.35V. Unlike some of the flashier RAM kits on the market, including Corsair's own Vengeance models, you're not getting any RGB with this kit. It instead comes in a simple white colorway, with a solid aluminum integrated heat spreader to help keep things cool during heavy workloads.

It's true: this isn't a record-breaking deal, but that's missing the point. What it is, however, is a great deal given the current market. A $70 price drop, and one that makes it the cheapest 32GB DDR5 RAM kit on the market right now, is worth a buy if you're thinking about upgrading your PC or building a new one.

You won't find better, faster RAM as cheap as this $329.99 Corsair Pro Overclocking 32GB RAM kit from B&H Photo. This isn't a no-brand kit, either, so you'd be buying high-quality and reliable RAM at a price that, given the tough market conditions, is pushing against the grain. Past experience tells us that these discounted RAM kits sell out fast, so if you're interested, you should order it before it sells out.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

It's a bad time to build a PC right now, given all the component shortages and political tensions that seemingly never leave sight of uncertainty. Bad times call for desperate measures, and that's precisely the window of opportunity that scammers are waiting to bank on. As such, reports of fake DDR5 memory circulating in Asian markets have begun to pop up, with some scammers replacing entire modules with counterfeit, hollow plastic chips. You can see the clever counterfeits by expanding the tweet below.

The post above from Japanese user TAKI shows laptop DDR5 memory (SODIMMs) with some of these fake chips. The sticker on the RAM says it's a Samsung stick, but the modules are clearly from SK Hynix. They also look a bit weird with the edges looking abnormally rounded off, exposing a white material around the perimeter. If you look closely, one of the ICs on the PCB is also knocked out of place, suggesting these components have been dropped on the board rather prematurely.

Looking closer at one of the DDR5 modules, it's clearly been shaved off; that explains the white perimeter. But there's nothing inside because these chips are just made of plastic or fiberglass with no circuitry inside. The second giveaway then becomes clear — since these are literally just bits of plastic, the SK Hynix part number markings are also fake, printed on top to make the RAM look convincing.

These counterfeit memory kits are common on secondhand marketplaces, such as Mercari and Yahoo Auctions, and some are listed as broken. The description on one of these listings outlines a whole story about where these sticks come from, and that the buyer shouldn't purchase them expecting a functional product.

People looking to make a quick buck would pounce on such ads, or even worse, scammers would buy these lots to actually resell as working sticks to unsuspecting customers. And these are SODIMMs with no heatspreaders, so you can actually see the part numbers and likely make out the fact they're not authentic. For desktop memory that does come with heatsinks, you're basically out of luck until you actually test it.

The sellers peddling these fake DDR5 modules also accept no returns, which is common for "as is" purchases. Another possibility is that these sticks are coming from Amazon bait-and-switch scams where people buy an authentic product, swap it for a fake (or nothing at all), and return it, from where it ends up in a returns warehouse. It then gets picked up by a larger seller who might sort and sift through the lot to identify valuable items like RAM and put them up on the aftermarket.

Ultimately, the point remains that you should be extremely vigilant when buying used products, especially in times like these. If a deal is too good to be true, it most likely is. Purchase from reputable stores and vendors that accept returns or refunds, or at least those who'll exchange faulty items for you. While memory is the most price-hiked PC hardware category right now, similar scams run through GPUs and even CPUs.

Make sure to tally any product numbers with authentic ones you find online and thoroughly test the components to ensure they work. The latter practice should be enough to spoof out any bad actors, but try to secure a warranty as well, just in case.

In Samsung’s full earnings report released on April 30, 2026, the company’s memory chief Kim Jaejune warned that “significant shortages” across memory products are expected to continue through at least 2027. According to the company, demand fulfillment rates have fallen to record lows as customers rush to secure future supply, SCMP reports. The warning closely mirrors comments made by “rival” SK Hynix during its earnings call just a week earlier.

Together with US-based Micron Technology, Samsung and SK hynix control well over 90% of the global DRAM market. When two of the world’s three biggest memory suppliers simultaneously warn of multi-year shortages, it wouldn’t be too out of place to worry.

The shortages are being driven largely by the need for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Modern AI systems require enormous amounts of high-speed memory to continuously feed data to GPUs and accelerators. At the center of this demand surge is HBM (high-bandwidth memory), a vertically stacked form of DRAM designed to deliver extremely high bandwidth while remaining physically close to processors.

HBM has become critical for AI accelerators. However, the technology is difficult and expensive to manufacture, requiring advanced die stacking, precision bonding, and sophisticated packaging techniques. As a result, supply is limited, and demand is outpacing manufacturers' ability to build capacity.

While the shortage is driven primarily by HBM demand, its effects are beginning to spill over into the broader memory market. Because HBM itself is a form of DRAM, manufacturers are increasingly reallocating manufacturing capacity, engineering resources, and investment toward high-margin AI memory products. That shift risks tightening supply for more conventional DRAM products used in servers, PCs, and mobile devices. Enterprise SSD demand is also rising as AI data centers require massive storage infrastructure alongside compute hardware.

Ironically, the industry is simultaneously searching for alternatives because current memory architectures consume enormous amounts of power. We recently reported on efforts to develop next-generation memory technologies such as 3D X-DRAM and ZAM (Z-Angle Memory), which aim to reduce power consumption and ease scaling limitations.

Yet despite massive investment into future alternatives, demand for the existing memory technologies remains overwhelming.

Samsung reportedly stated that some customers have already secured supply allocations through 2027. Earlier this year, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won suggested that AI-related memory demand pressure may persist even toward 2030.

The shortages are not necessarily bad news for the companies themselves.

Samsung’s semiconductor division posted 53.7 trillion won ($36.1 billion) in operating profit during the first quarter of 2026, accounting for roughly 94% of the company’s total quarterly profit as soaring AI memory demand drove record sales. Meanwhile, SK hynix reported record quarterly revenue of 52.6 trillion won ($35.5 billion), and operating profit of 37.6 trillion won ($27.8 billion), fueled largely by booming HBM sales for AI infrastructure.

Part of the problem is cyclical. The memory industry has historically swung between oversupply and shortages. However, analysts increasingly believe this cycle is different, as growth in AI infrastructure is consuming hardware at unprecedented rates.

To address the crisis, the companies are aggressively expanding production capacity and increasing investment in advanced packaging and memory fabrication. According to the Korea Times, recent regulatory filings show that Samsung Electronics invested 465.4 billion won in its Xi’an memory chip plant in 2025, a 67.5% year-over-year increase. SK hynix also significantly increased spending, investing 581.1 billion won into its Wuxi facilities and 440.6 billion won into its Dalian operations.

However, semiconductor fabrication plants and advanced memory packaging facilities take years to expand and ramp up, meaning supply growth cannot catch up to the pace of AI-driven demand.

The memory crunch is joining a growing list of resource shortages emerging from the AI explosion.

GPU shortages have already become severe across parts of the industry. Earlier this month, we reported Intel’s confirmation that extreme demand had become so intense that customers were even buying chips that might previously have been discarded or treated as low-value products.

Power is becoming another major bottleneck. AI data centers are consuming enormous amounts of electricity, forcing technology companies to seek increasingly unconventional energy solutions. Earlier this month, Meta Platforms backed plans involving space-based solar power systems that could theoretically beam solar energy back to Earth to help support future AI infrastructure demands.

Dr. Semiconductor is back in his shed, and this time he’s checking whether Joe Public can DIY themselves out of the DRAM crisis. In the video embedded below, you can see the good doctor go through the semiconductor process steps required to make an array of memory cells in a backyard shed cleanroom. This is the “first time ever RAM has been made at home,” boasts our hero.

RAMageddon isn’t the only issue affecting PC DIYers and the industry in general. Dr. Semiconductor mentions the AI-industry-fueled RAM price disruption being driven by the big three players (but there are others) not being able to keep up with demand. We are seeing similar effects on storage, GPUs, and some reckon CPU supplies will also begin to be impacted.

With the existing industry incapable of addressing consumer RAM needs at attractive prices in 2026, the TechTuber asks, “I turned a shed in my back yard into a class 100 semiconductor cleanroom… but the question is, can I make my own RAM?”

After the intro, Dr. Semiconductor gives a brief description of how computer memory works, and how it is largely made up of huge arrays featuring oodles of capacitors and transistors.

Moving on to the practicalities of the job at hand, the good doctor begins by snipping a couple of silicon chips from a large sheet. This is the beginning of the preparation and cleaning stage of the chipmaking process.

Next up, we move to the initial patterning stage. A layer of oxide is built on the surface of the silicon in a high-temperature furnace. It is estimated that this layer is 330nm thick. On top of this layer, an adhesive layer and photoresist film are applied. UV exposure projects a design mask onto this newly created surface, which allows a developer solution to wash away the areas that have been hit by the light rays.

The source and drain of the transistors in the design are formed in the following steps. This involves more layer etching, doping exposed silicon to make it highly conductive, then annealing the chips to push the doping agent deeper.

Several more carefully targeted deposition and erosion steps later, we are ready for the metallization of the silicon chip. A tiny stencil is used to accurately spray the sample with aluminum, the excess stripped away, and the fully layered and formed chip is at last ready for some tests!

Checking the results

The freshly fabricated DRAM cells are so small that wires can’t be used to hook them up to test machinery by the DIYers. Micromanipulator probes are precisely positioned instead. The good news is that Dr. Semiconductor was pleased with his finished DRAM chips, as cells were measured to offer a hobbyist sweet spot of 12pF capacitance.

At the end of the video, the doc teases that he’s going to build on this significant, though admittedly small-scale, achievement. He’s looking to prepare a much larger array of finished memory cells and says that they will be prepared to “hook up to a PC.” Stay tuned for the PC-scale practical implementation, folks.

We reported on Dr. Semiconductor's creation of this garden shed-based cleanroom back in March.

A couple of days ago, Intel, TeamGroup and ASRock came together to unveil the "HUDIMM" spec for DDR5 RAM. HUDIMM use a single 32-bit subchannel instead of populating a 64-bit wide bus with two 32-bit channels. This effectively cuts bandwidth and capacity in half but allows for cheaper DDR5 that uses less ICs per stick. Today, new testing done by HKEPC, with the help of Asus, confirms exactly that — HUDIMM will incur an almost 50% bandwidth penalty, reducing performance significantly.

First things first, HKEPC did not get their hands on an actual retail HUDIMM kit manufactured by TeamGroup; instead, they used standard DDR5 RAM but taped half of the contact points. This allowed for one of the 32-bit subchannels to become unrecognizable, hence simulating HUDIMM. A member of Asus' R&D team has already tried this before the announcement, and we mentioned it in our previous coverage.

This new testing is more substantiated and was done on an Asus ROG Maximum Z890 Extreme motherboard, using an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. The outlet "matched the BIOS that supports HUDIMM modules" because, unlike a retail 1x 32-bit stick, the modified 2x 32-bit RAM's SPD will still tell the memory controller it's supposed to have a 64-bit wide bus. The PC will fail to initialize (POST) otherwise and be stuck with training errors.

We start with a single rank 16 GB 7,200 MT/s stick that showed up as 8 GB. In AIDA64, it achieved read speeds of 32,447 MB/s, write speeds of 25,195 MB/s, and copy speeds of 26,894 MB/s, with an 87.7 ns latency. In contrast, the same stick when untaped hit 58,913 MB/s read, 48,800 MB/s write, and 52,648 MB/s copy speeds. That's essentially double the throughput across the board, but latency was the same at 85.7 ns.

As expected, disabling one of the 32-bit subchannels slashes the numbers in half pretty consistently. You get to build cheaper sticks that require only 4 ICs instead of the usual 8 for a 16 GB DIMM, but it clearly comes at a cost. The standard 16 GB stick is almost at 60 GB/s of effective bandwidth while the simulated 8 GB HUDIMM stick only reaches 32 GB/s. That's the kind of discrepancy you'll notice.

Switching gears to a dual channel setup, HKEPC put 2x 16 GB 7,200 MT/s sticks on the motherboard, which showed 32 GB in the standard config, but only 16 GB when taped. The same story follows; half of the bandwidth is gone when simulating HUDIMM. We drop from 106 GB/s read speeds to just 58 GB/s, the write speeds go from 93 GB/s to 48 GB/s, and the copy speeds fall from 97 GB/s to 51 GB/s. The latency remained identical.

The HUDIMM numbers here basically match the performance of a regular 16 GB stick running in single channel, which is to be expected. It's simple math, really. Across the board, we're just halving the bandwidth and capacity just to be able to make cheaper DDR5. The performance hit is significant, but since HUDIMM is aimed at budget gamers and business users, perhaps the tradeoff will be worthwhile for some.

One claim from the announcement that HKEPC didn't check was asymmetric dual channel support — combining HUDIMM with regular DDR5 with 2x 32-bit subchannels is supposed to drastically improve performance. ASRock said that using an 8 GB HUDIMM stick with a standard 16 GB stick nets more bandwidth than a single 24 GB UDIMM (despite having the same capacity). The 24 GB stick on its own is apparently more expensive to manufacture, too, so this is a sort of "best-of-both-worlds" pitch.

40 years ago today IBM was in the news for becoming the first computer company to make use of 1-megabit memory chips. Thus, the megabit memory era began with an American company and its Vermont fab leading the way, pushing back stubbornly against the seemingly unstoppable Japanese takeover of the memory market.

IBM’s 3090 (Sierra series) mainframe computers were the first to adopt this new high-density memory. However, the New York Times reported the occasion as “a rare, if fleeting, moment of glory,” as it thought the Japanese semiconductor industry would inexorably rise beyond its already impressive 75% market share.

The NYT’s take contrasted with IBM’s triumphant tone. “This is a signal of our semiconductor technology leadership,” said IBM SVP, Jack D. Kuehler, at the time. He went on to emphasize how these DRAM chips were built in the USA. Some of the newspaper’s cynicism came from the fact that it already knew the likes of Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC, and Toshiba were busy sampling their own 1-megabit DRAM chips. Once they were satisfied and moved them to mass production, it was expected the Far East tiger economy would roar back to pole position.

If we turn the clock back to 1986, most computing devices in use might have packed memory chips of the 64 kilobit variety. The state-of-the-art Japanese memory tech at the time was churning out 256 kilobit memory chips. In that context IBM’s 1-megabit chips, fabricated on a 1.2 micron process, were very impressive, bringing a leap in both density and efficiency.

The arrival and establishment of 1-megabit memory chips would enable memory makers to produce 30-pin SIMMs with 1MB RAM capacity, using eight to nine chips in a single-side configuration. Such SIMMs will be very familiar to users of home and personal computers from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Additionally, you would be able to use the same SIMMs in printers, on sound cards, and even graphics cards like the Tseng ET3000 / ET4000, Trident TVGA 8800 / 8900, and Cirrus Logic GD542x series.

Thanks to the AI boom, component prices have skyrocketed in the past few months, leading constituents to come up with creative ways to fight the RAMpocalypse. ASRock has previously introduced a motherboard with both DDR4 and DDR5 slots to help alleviate the crisis, but now it's teaming up with Intel and TeamGroup to launch "HUDIMM" — a new type of DDR5 RAM that can potentially help you save money.

DDR5 memory (UDIMM) typically uses two 32-bit subchannels per stick, requiring enough chips to populate a full 64-bit wide bus. This constitutes a single rank. HUDIMM, or Half Unbuffered DIMM, uses just a single 32-bit subchannel instead, effectively halving the bandwidth and density of the RAM. This allows for cheaper sticks that use fewer modules and are basically "half-rank" in nature.

ASRock has partnered up with TeamGroup to produce some of these first HUDIMM sticks, which are already working on Intel 600, 700 and 800-series motherboards. ASRock is also making HSODIMM, which is basically the same concept but for SO-DIMM (laptop/mobile) instead of U-DIMM (desktop). The company is targeting entry-level users across both segments that don't need the highest performance, or capacity.

According to ASRock, "two sub-channel (2*32-bit)" architecture is beneficial for high-capacity single DIMM module, however, it is not so practical for current PC market." That being said, HUDIMM has asymmetrical dual-channel support at the BIOS level. This should allow you to mix and match different DDR5 RAM to circumvent the single subchannel limitation and achieve higher bandwidth, while still maintaining compatibility.

For instance, an 8 GB HUDIMM stick paired with a 16 GB UDIMM stick will run in proper dual-channel mode with at least 3x 32-bit subchannels active — one from the HUDIMM and two from the standard UDIMM. This Frankenstein 24 GB setup apparently provides better bandwidth than a single 2x 32-bit 24 GB stick, which would be more expensive to manufacture anyway. Though ASRock's press material shows a 90 ns latency, which would be considered high by any modern standards.

Following ASRock's announcement, Asus also chimed in with its own HUDMM showcase on a ROG Maximum Z890 Apex motherboard. A member of the R&D team took two regular 24 GB DDR5 RAM sticks and just taped half of the contact points, effectively disabling half of the ICs. Instead of showing 48 GB in the BIOS, these taped sticks showed only 24 GB.

The company didn't say whether it was partnering up with TeamGroup as well to add official HUDIMM support, but the fact that an engineer acknowledged it could signal something is in the works. If Asus hops on board the standard, an industry-wide push for this would be imminent, and we could genuinely see more affordable DDR5 soon. There is no word on availability or pricing from any side, however.

Some better news today if you're looking for some RAM to fill a system. For owners of an AM5-platform-based PC in particular, today's memory deal offers some of that 6000MT/s speed that hits the sweet spot for AMD CPU performance. It also happens to be the absolute cheapest DDR5 memory kit you can currently purchase at these speeds and capacities, thanks to a double-dipping discount frenzy at Newegg.

Originally priced at $429.99, Newegg has discounted the RAM by $55 to $374.99, and then added a further $90 discount code SSF5767 to bring the price of Team Group's 32GB Team T-Create Classic DDR5-6000 RAM to just $284.99 - the lowest price as of today for 32GB DDR5-6000 kits.

• Grab this deal at Newegg

This is not a gaming-oriented RAM kit! There are no fancy RGB lights or accents on the heat spreaders. This T-Create Classic memory is packaged for professional use, where the design of the aesthetics isn't the primary concern. So the heat spreaders are black with just the logo and naming conventions visible in white. The timings of the RAM are fairly loose, with a CAS latency of 48 and further timings of 48-48-96. Not ideal for a cutting-edge gaming system where every frame counts, but perfect for applications or standard rendering. It will, of course, still function perfectly well in a gaming rig, but just be aware it's not the fastest kit out there.

At one point in time, over a year ago this same RAM kit was on sale for only $87, but that was well before the AI-crunch that saw memory prices quadruple and more in a matter of weeks. Today's deal is a very good deal based on the current climate, but not on historical data. We won't be seeing RAM prices that low again for some considerable time - if ever. If you need RAM urgently, then today's DDR5 Team T-Create Classic RAM deal for $284.99 is a winner.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Conventional DRAM contract prices will rise 58% to 63% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2026, while NAND Flash contract prices will jump 70% to 75% QoQ, according to TrendForce's latest memory pricing survey. The increases follow a Q1 that saw DRAM contracts climb by a record 90% to 95% QoQ, meaning the rate of DRAM price growth has slowed somewhat, even as NAND Flash prices have accelerated sharply from the prior quarter's circa 60% increase.

Unfortunately, the underlying issue of DRAM suppliers reallocating capacity towards AI-related applications still exists, and NAND production is increasingly being directed toward enterprise SSDs. Cloud service providers are also securing the bulk of available supply through long-term agreements, and meaningful capacity expansion is not expected until late 2027 at the earliest.

The server segment is driving demand in this market, with North American cloud providers ramping AI inference infrastructure and buying up high-capacity RDIMMs in volume, TrendForce said. Meanwhile, memory makers — drawn by better margins on server products — are locking in multi-quarter supply deals with their largest customers to underwrite future capacity builds.

PC DRAM demand has been revised downward, yet suppliers have simultaneously reduced shipments to PC OEMs and module makers, meaning OEMs receiving lower allocation fulfillment are being forced to procure at higher prices from suppliers or module vendors, which is keeping prices elevated despite softer system-level demand.

NAND Flash's c. 75% QoQ increase outpaces DRAM for the first time in the current cycle, while demand for enterprise SSDs hasn't let up as large-scale generative AI deployments continue to absorb the lion's share of production capacity. TrendForce said it expects a pronounced shortage through 2026, with new fab capacity unlikely to come online in volume before late 2027 or 2028; cloud providers are willing to pay more and commit to multi-quarter purchase agreements to guarantee allocation.

Client SSD buyers are restocking preemptively out of concern that server demand could absorb all available capacity, with suppliers maintaining prices by continuing to limit supply to client SSDs. The eMMC/UFS segment faces the tightest supply gap of any NAND product category because process capacity for eMMC/UFS overlaps with enterprise SSD production and offers significantly lower margins, making it the lowest-priority allocation for suppliers.

Meanwhile, NAND flash bit output growth remains limited despite process upgrades and higher QLC adoption. PC and smartphone vendors are reducing product storage capacities to manage costs, while NAND flash wafers have become the lowest-priority shipment category for suppliers due to thin margins and inventory adjustments.

Fresh off the back of last week's Corsair RAM deal is another epic bargain that you won't want to miss. The folks over at B&H Photo have slashed the price of this Corsair Pro Overclocking DDR5 32GB (2 x 16GB) to just $309.99 right now. That's a massive $140 on its current list price that you can't afford to ignore if you want fast, cheap RAM in your build. You'll need to be quick, though, as the deal is set to end in less than 24 hours.

● Check out this deal at B&H Photo

Look, this isn't a record low price, but we're not in 2025 anymore. RAM prices have been skyrocketing over recent months, despite early signs that the market might be cooling; we're nowhere near the old prices we saw. $309.99 is the cheapest you'll find 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM right now, especially with speeds of 6,400 MT/s, with the next best option (with slower speeds) is this Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 RAM for $369.99 over at Amazon.

While we'd normally focus on specs first in a deal like this, the price is the elephant in the room. We've written extensively about the AI-driven memory pricing crisis that has sent the cost of memory chips to record highs. Our RAM price tracker shows that, not only has the cost of RAM rapidly risen in recent months, but it's also caused a stock crunch, with plenty of the best-priced options now regularly out of stock.

Very few green shoots exist right now in this market. Team Group warned in December that the pricing crisis had only just started, while Kingston warned users not to wait to upgrade RAM or SSD. Corsair isn't immune to the crisis, either, and has raised its prices considerably over recent months.

We are where we are. $309.99 isn't a record low, but you can expect to spend a lot more on memory elsewhere, and this particular deal places it $60 cheaper than its next best (and ultimately slower) sibling.

This particular kit comes with two 16GB modules, with rated speeds of 6,400 MT/s. Not only is that significantly faster than older DDR4 RAM modules, which typically max out at 3,600 MT/s, but as our Corsair Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 review shows, this RAM is overclockable, supporting Intel XMP and AMD EXPO OC profiles on supported motherboards. Thanks to its overclockable nature that lets you increase the speeds to 6600 M/Ts or higher, this is RAM that you can push further and faster in an enthusiast gaming PC build.

This Corsair Pro Overlocking RAM has CAS latency and memory timings of 38-40-40-84, operating at a voltage of 1.35V. This isn't flashy RAM, and lacks the RGB you'll see in some of its other Vengeance models. It instead ships in a simple black design and has a solid aluminum integrated heat spreader to keep it cool while operating.

You won't find better, faster RAM as cheap as this $309.99 Corsair Pro Overclocking 32GB RAM deal from B&H Photo. This is high-quality and reliable RAM that, in a tough market, is pushing against the grain and beating the AI-fueled memory pricing. If you're planning an upgrade or new build, you'll want to jump on this quick, as this is a limited-time deal that won't last until tomorrow.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

A huge sale season is upon us, and despite the AI boom, there's a surprise discount to be had right now on RAM from Corsair. The company has slashed the price of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) to just $300.99 right now, saving you $130 on its current list price. Yes, that's not a record low, but given how much memory prices have skyrocketed in recent months, you'll struggle to find better-priced DDR5 RAM anywhere else. In fact, its $60 cheaper than the next best option, given 32GB of RAM recently became impossible to find for less than $359.

● Check out this deal at Corsair

The Corsair Vengeance range is is some of the most popular RAM on the market, and while we haven't tested this specific kit, the similar Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 performs well. This RAM is rated to be even faster, with speeds of 6,200 MT/s. That isn't the fastest you'll find, but more "affordable" kits are currently priced to be even higher, with the DDR5-6000 CL36 review model costing at least $70 more on Amazon right now, and $60 less than the lowest-price Corsair Pro model at Best Buy.

Just 99 cents above $300 for 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM is a great price in the current market. We've written extensively about the AI-driven memory pricing crisis that has sent the cost of memory chips soaring. Our RAM price tracker shows that, not only has the cost of RAM rapidly risen, but it's also caused a stock crunch, with plenty of reasonable options now regularly out of stock.

The industry has spent the last few months warning us that these prices, and the shortages behind them, are going to continue or even get worse, too. Team Group warned in December that the pricing crisis had only just started, while Kingston warned users not to wait to upgrade RAM or SSD. Corsair isn't immune to the crisis, either, and has raised its prices considerably.

That brings us to this particular deal. These prices are the new normal, so while $300 might not be the record lows we've seen before, you can expect to pay even more right now for rival models. As mentioned, this is $59 cheaper than the next best option on the market right now.

This particular kit comes with two 16GB modules, with rated speeds of 6,200 MT/s. That isn't the fastest DDR5 RAM you'll find, but it's significantly faster than older DDR4 RAM modules, which typically cap out at 3,600 MT/s. It has CAS latency and memory timings of 36-46-46-100, comes in a black colorway, and has a solid aluminum heat spreader to keep things cool.

The $300.99 sale price for this Corsair Vengeance RAM is a serious bargain in bad circumstances. We can't change the market, and the AI-fueled RAM crunch isn't going to change any time soon. If you're looking for an upgrade or if you're planning a new PC build, you'll want to pick up a discount like this one while you can, because we'll expect to see these prices rise again pretty soon once Corsair's deal ends.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Micron’s planned $24 billion NAND flash expansion in Singapore will require 400 to 500 power transformers, which is more than double the 100 to 150 units a standard wafer fab typically needs, according to industry sources as reported by DigiTimes. The scale exceeds the annual output capacity of any single Taiwanese transformer manufacturer, turning heavy electrical equipment into a bottleneck for AI-driven semiconductor buildouts.

This level of demand from Micron reflects the power intensity of modern memory fabs tied to AI. HBM production for AI servers has driven every major memory maker into simultaneous expansion, and the electrical infrastructure required to support those fabs is now outpacing the supply chain built to serve it.

Micron's Singapore project, where production is targeted for late 2028, is one piece of a broader global buildout. The company has acquired PSMC's Miaoli Tongluo fab in Taiwan for $1.8 billion, with that facility slated for 2026, while new plants in Idaho and New York are underway, and a Hiroshima facility is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2026.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have also announced their own capacity expansions, all driven by the same demand curve: AI server deployments consuming HBM at volumes that existing production lines cannot satisfy. We’re now seeing a synchronized wave of fab construction across three continents as a result, with each project competing for the same pool of heavy electrical equipment and raw materials.

The toll this is taking is already visible in pricing and availability, with major heavy electrical equipment suppliers Fortune Electric and Allis Electric both having implemented price increases of 20% to 30%, driven by the surge in orders and rising costs of copper and other raw materials. Meanwhile, some transformer manufacturers have declined to quote on large-scale semiconductor projects entirely, citing an inability to meet the tight timelines and volume requirements. Industry sources say no single maker can absorb the scale of orders now flowing from the AI and semiconductor sectors.

International transformer brands, despite commanding higher prices, are gaining ground because their larger overseas factories can push out more units. Domestic Taiwanese manufacturers have responded by collaborating with secondary suppliers, dividing specifications and capacity across multiple firms to meet individual customer demands.

Transformers are also shared infrastructure, and, beyond fabs, the same equipment is needed for AI data center construction, utility-scale energy storage, and grid expansion projects. A supply chain that was already stretched before the AI buildout wave is now absorbing orders measured in the hundreds of units per project.

Unfortunately, delayed transformer deliveries will likely translate into delayed fabs, which in turn will push back the timelines for memory production that AI buyers are counting on. Data center operators planning new facilities are in the same queue, competing with semiconductor companies for equipment that takes months to manufacture and deliver.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said that cars will eventually require more than 300GB of RAM as automakers introduce vehicles that have L4 autonomy. According to The Register, Mehrotra said this after Micron released its quarterly earnings report, with the company reporting $23.86 billion in revenue for the second quarter of this year — a huge 200% jump from the $8.03 billion it posted in 2Q25. This massive jump is still driven by the incredible demand for premium HBM chips from AI hyperscalers combined with “structural supply constraints and Micron’s strong execution across the board.”

As the company is raking cash from the AI infrastructure build out, it’s also expanding its output with several planned fabs in Japan, Singapore, and even a “megafab” in New York. These projects are expected to come online between 2028 and 2029, and the Micron CEO said that it’s looking to boost output by 20% in 2026, which could help alleviate some of the pressure on the supply side. However, even as these new factories start production, Mehrotra predicts that there will be a new market that demands massive amounts of high-speed memory — self-driving cars.

There are six levels of vehicle autonomy, starting at L0 for cars that have no driving automation whatsoever. A vehicle with a single automated system (such as cruise control) counts as L1, while those equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that both control steering and acceleration, such as Tesla’s Autopilot and Cadillac’s Super Cruise, are considered as L2. On the other hand, vehicles with L4 autonomy basically do not need human intervention in any task, like overtaking or deciding when to cross a busy intersection. However, it still gives the driver the option to take control and manually drive the vehicle.

Nvidia announced that it’s working with Chinese carmakers BYD and Geely and Japanese marques Isuzu and Nissan to adopt the Nvidia Drive Hyperion platform. This is the AI chip maker’s end-to-end autonomous vehicle platform meant to deliver an L4 system to car manufacturers. Since this is an AI system, it will likely demand a lot of high-speed memory to be able to run effectively.

Most modern vehicles require at least 16GB of memory, but if car makers introduce L4 autonomy, it will definitely need a lot more RAM. We’ve seen this with the shortage of high-end Macs with up to 512GB of Unified Memory as many users have become interested in running the likes of OpenClaw on their own systems. It has even gotten to the point that Apple pulled the $4,000 512GB Mac Studio from its online store and raised the 256GB version to $2,000. So, if carmakers started churning out hundreds of thousands, if not millions of vehicles with AI-powered driverless features, Micron expects demand for automotive memory to pick up as well.

This might take some time to happen, though, especially as vehicles with these features are quite expensive and regulations haven’t quite caught up with L4 autonomy just yet. But if and when people start buying cars like these, we hope that memory chip makers have excess capacity to absorb the increase in demand. Otherwise, we might be seeing another round of memory chip shortages, this time driven by AI supercomputers on wheels.

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters at Nvidia's GTC conference in San Jose on Monday that the global memory chip shortage is likely to persist for another four to five years, with industry-wide wafer supply lagging demand by more than 20%, Bloomberg reported. Chey, whose conglomerate controls SK Hynix, said leading memory makers are expanding capacity but are unlikely to fully meet demand until around 2030 because securing additional wafers takes at least four to five years, according to The Korea Times.

Chey warned that excessive focus on high-bandwidth memory could lead to shortages in conventional DRAM, potentially affecting smartphones and PCs. SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron have shifted production in recent years toward HBM for AI accelerators, and the resulting shortfall in conventional DRAM output has driven steep price increases across consumer electronics.

SK Hynix holds roughly 57% of the global HBM market and 32% of overall DRAM, and the company is currently building a $13 billion HBM packaging and testing facility at its Cheongju complex in South Korea, with construction scheduled to begin next month and completion targeted for the end of 2027.

Samsung, meanwhile, is expanding DRAM capacity at its Pyeongtaek campus, with its P5 facility expected online by 2028. Micron is also planning a $9.6 billion HBM facility in Hiroshima, but initial output is not expected until 2028 either. Nearly all new capex is going toward HBM lines, where margins are highest.

Chey said SK Hynix is preparing measures to help stabilize DRAM prices, and that CEO Kwak Noh-jung is expected to announce a plan soon. He didn’t elaborate on what those measures would involve, though.

Gartner on February 26 projected global PC shipments will fall 10.4% and smartphone shipments 8.4% in 2026 compared to 2025 levels, driven by what the firm estimates will be a 130% surge in combined DRAM and SSD prices by the end of the year.

This, Gartner says, will lead to price increases of 17% among PCs year-over-year, leading to PC lifetimes extending by 15% for business users and 20% for consumers by the end of 2026, with the entry-level market facing the worst of it.

Micron has announced that it has entered high-volume production of its HBM4 36GB 12-Hi memory, designed for Nvidia's Vera Rubin GPU platform. Making the announcement at GTC 2026, the memory giant simultaneously confirmed high-volume production of the industry's first PCIe 6.0 data center SSD and a new SOCAMM2 module, making it the first memory supplier to bring all three products to volume shipment for the Vera Rubin ecosystem at the same time.

The HBM4 36GB 12H stack runs at over 11 Gb/s pin speeds, delivering bandwidth greater than 2.8 TB/s. Compared to Micron's HBM3E at the same 36GB 12H configuration, that represents a 2.3 times bandwidth increase alongside more than 20% improvement in power efficiency, according to Micron's internal power calculator data.

"The next era of AI will be defined by tightly integrated platforms developed through joint engineering innovations across the ecosystem. Our close collaboration with NVIDIA ensures that compute and memory are designed to scale together from day one," said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief business officer at Micron Technology, in a press release. "With HBM4 36GB 12H, alongside the industry's first SOCAMM2 and Gen6 SSD now in high-volume production, Micron's memory and storage form a core foundation that unlocks the full potential of next-generation AI."

Micron has also shipped samples of a 48GB 16H HBM4 stack to customers. The additional four die layers give the 16H configuration a 33% capacity increase per HBM placement over the 36GB 12H product, a milestone that points toward denser configurations in future AI accelerator generations.

Last month, the company announced that the 9650 SSD had entered mass production, marking the first time that a PCIe 6.0 SSD had entered that stage of production. The drive supports up to 28 GB/s sequential read throughput and 5.5 million random read IOPS, doubling PCIe 5.0 read performance at 100% higher performance per watt. Unsurprisingly, it targets AI inference, training, and agentic workloads in liquid-cooled environments and is optimized for Nvidia's BlueField-4 STX reference architecture.

Meanwhile, the 192GB SOCAMM2 module is designed for Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems and standalone Vera CPU platforms, with Micron's SOCAMM2 portfolio spanning 48GB to 256GB capacities. The Vera Rubin platform supports up to 2TB of memory and 1.2 TB/s of bandwidth per CPU using the module.

The ongoing RAM chip crisis is bulldozing everything in its path, and both retailers and memory kit manufacturers are feeling the sting whenever they need to replace a kit under warranty. But some stores can be particularly vicious about this, as Australian buyer Goran says they discovered when they returned a faulty Corsair 32 GB DDR5-5600 kit to Umart — one of the nation's largest specialist PC hardware retailers — for a warranty claim.

In a story covered closely by the Hardware Unboxed channel, the store took his faulty DIMMs (bought in 2024) and confirmed the failure with a PassMark test, but then told Goran that he would not be receiving a replacement kit. Instead, it offered a refund for the original price of 155 AUD — a mere pittance, considering comparable kits now command between 500 and 600 AUD, or a 3.5x to 4x increase.

Despite currently having many similar kits in stock, the store told Goran that a replacement would be an "upgrade." Had Goran taken the offer, he'd have had to dole out another 400 AUD or more for a similar set.

Naturally, he refused the offer and brought up Australian consumer law, which is quite similar to the European one for these matters. In a simplified form, retailers are responsible for warranty claims and must replace or refund the defective item; then they take the issue to the manufacturer. When confronted by Goran, Umart went to the trouble of quoting the Australian Consumer Law but made a seemingly byzantine and twisted interpretation of it, reiterating that a refund at the original price was the proper remedy.

Savvy PC builders are probably thinking right now that at this point Goran could just save himself the trouble and head straight to Corsair's RMA page, as his set carries the usual manufacturer's limited lifetime warranty. That's when this story gets really interesting, as Umart displayed some serious chutzpa by effectively taking the DIMMs hostage.

The store said it couldn't send the RAM back as it had been "forwarded to the authorized supplier," who "issued a credit in place of replacement stock." So, not only could Goran no longer ask Corsair for a direct RMA, but Umart may have gotten a refund at today's pricing and pocketed the difference. Even still, Goran soldiered on and sent all the information to Corsair support, which promptly went on radio silence for three weeks. That's when Hardware Unboxed stepped in to help clear up the situation, even offering to lend Goran one of their memory kits in the meantime.

Corsair did end up replying to the channel stating that it was handling Goran's case — though the host naturally raised the question of whether the company had done because of the well-known influencer privilege. For its part, Umart essentially reiterated its existing position with a noncommittal statement posted as a comment to the Hardware Unboxed video. That did not sit well with people, and the channel replied back saying it now has collected more similar stories with Umart's warranty services — it's safe to say this story is probably not over.

Modular laptop manufacturer Framework just dropped its monthly newsletter covering the memory and storage chip shortage, and it seems that the situation isn’t improving. The company said on its blog that it will still have to increase RAM pricing for the third month in a row, with DDR5 SO-DIMMs now costing between $13 to $18 per GB, depending on the capacity. This is a smaller amount compared to previous increases, which saw RAM prices jump from $10 to $13 per GB in December 2025 to $12 to $16 GB in February — an increase of about $2 to $3 per GB (compared to the $1 to $2 increase this month). Still, we will have to wait and see if memory prices will stabilize at this level or if we will see further increases in the coming months.

Unfortunately, the bad news does not end there. This is the first monthly update in which the company mentioned storage pricing, and the company said that it has already depleted its inventory of lower-cost components. Because of this, the company “needed to re-price some capacities to reflect those costs we are now paying for new orders.” Still, Framework says that it still has an existing inventory of 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB SN850X SSDs, one of the best SSDs you can buy in 2026, which is “substantially below market,” with the company encouraging its customers to purchase a Framework Laptop or Desktop right now if they want a lot of storage.

Aside from the AI-driven memory and storage shortages, Framework is also feeling the pinch when it comes to certain CPU models. It says that it’s already running into limited supplies of the Intel Core i5-1334U processor, which is used in the Framework Laptop 12 model, and that it's working on “ways to bring in more supply.” Increasing CPU demand is one side-effect of the AI infrastructure build-out, especially as we transition from reasoning AI LLMs to complete agents that require GPUs, NPUs, and CPUs to accomplish complete workflows. Intel has also been introducing and working on new CPU models, including Arrow Lake Refresh, Panther Lake, and Nova Lake, meaning it likely would want to focus production on these upcoming releases.

Framework has been transparent to its customers about the price increases on memory, storage, and even CPUs, and it has been diligently releasing updates monthly to keep everyone informed. This shows how it’s trying hard to be different, offering components severely affected by shortages as close as possible to their cost, and differentiating itself from other companies, like Dell and Apple, that put egregious markups on RAM and other parts upgrades.

SK Hynix has announced the successful development of its first LPDDR6 DRAM, touting 33% greater speed and 20% better power efficiency compared to previous generation LPDDR5X memory. The memory manufacturer also announced that it has developed its LPDDR6 memory on its leading-edge 10nm-class (1c) process node that it announced in 2024.

The new modules have a base operating speed of "over" 10.7 Gbps — which exceeds the fastest outgoing LPDDR5X memory modules on the market today — and a memory capacity of 16Gb per chip. To help with power consumption, SK Hynix implemented a new sub-channel structure and DVFS, or Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, which it says reduces power consumption by more than 20% compared to previous generation LPDDR memory products. The sub-channel structure accomplishes power reductions by powering only the data paths that are in use, while DVFS reduces clock speed and voltage when memory demands are light.

SK Hynix has announced its LPDDR6 eight months after JEDEC finalized and published the LPDDR6 standard last July. However, SK Hynix is not the first manufacturer to make LPDDR6; Samsung already announced its first LPDDR6 product and showcased it at CES 2026, with speeds up to 10.7Gbps.

SK Hynix has confirmed that its 1c LPDDR6 will be used in smartphones and tablets, but we can also expect LPDDR6 to be a huge boon in the datacenter market. LPDDRX has been very popular in AI servers that take advantage of SOCAMM/SOCAMM2 memory modules that only support LPDDR memory. For instance, Nvidia's GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Superchip uses SOCAMM, and Nvidia's latest Vera Rubin Superchip uses SOCAMM2 memory modules. Late last year, SK Hynix stated that it expects post-Vera Rubin Nvidia AI chip designs to take advantage of LPDDR6.

This is just the beginning for LPDDR6; speeds well beyond 10.7Gbps are expected to become the norm as memory makers get to grips with optimizing and improving on their LPDDR6 designs. The JEDEC group believes that LPDDR6 will have data rates of up to 14,400 MT/s, which is well beyond what the fastest DDR5 overclocking record holds.

Gartner on February 26 projected global PC shipments will fall 10.4% and smartphone shipments 8.4% in 2026 compared to 2025 levels, driven by what the firm estimates will be a 130% surge in combined DRAM and SSD prices by the end of the year.

The forecast puts 2026 on track for the steepest device shipment contraction in over a decade, according to Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner. The report landed one day after HP disclosed on its Q1 2026 earnings call that memory now accounts for 35% of its PC bill of materials, up from 15-18% last quarter, confirming in real financial terms what the rest of the industry has been warning about since late 2025.

This will lead to price increases of 17% among PCs year-over-year, leading to PC lifetimes extending by 15% for business users and 20% for consumers by the end of 2026, with the entry-level market facing the worst of it. Memory is on track to account for 23% of a PC's total bill of materials in 2026, up from 16% in 2025, a shift that Gartner says eliminates vendors' ability to absorb costs on low-margin products.

"This sharp increase removes vendors' ability to absorb costs, making low-margin entry-level laptops nonviable," Atwal said. "Ultimately, we expect the sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028."

No hyperbole here

RAM price tracking paints a picture consistent with Gartner's projections, with a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit that cost between $100 and $200 in October 2025 now starting at roughly $350. Some kits have climbed even higher: a Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5-6000 kit stabilized at $339 between November and January before jumping to $439 in early January, where it stayed through the end of the month. A Patriot Viper Elite 5 16GB DDR5-6000 kit went from $43.99 in October 2025 to $169.99 by early December.

By late January, some modules had stabilized at their inflated values, with DDR4-3200, DDR4-3600, DDR5-4800, and DDR5-5200 kits leveling off. Higher-end DDR5-5600 and DDR5-6000 kits were still climbing, though at a slower pace. More recent data from late February shows modest corrections in European DDR5 pricing, with some 32GB DDR5-6000/6400 kits in Germany falling from early-February peaks. But those declines have been modest, and no major source forecasts a return to pre-crisis pricing any time soon. For perspective, DDR5-6000 kits in the EU that averaged around €95-€100 through early autumn 2025 were still hovering around €425-€470 by in recent weeks.

NAND flash has been hit just as hard, with Phison's CEO warning that eMMC NAND common in phones and low-end devices had climbed from $1.50 to $20 per 8GB module last year, a 13-times increase, and said at least one foundry now demands three years' cash upfront for NAND supply. Kingston confirmed it saw a 246% increase in NAND wafer prices and publicly told consumers not to wait for lower prices.

OEM price rises across the board

HP CEO Karen Parkhill said during the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call on February 25 that memory costs increased roughly 100% sequentially from Q1 to Q2, with expectations for further increases throughout the fiscal year. Despite those headwinds, HP's Personal Systems division posted an 11% year-over-year revenue increase to $10.3 billion on the back of Windows 11 upgrade cycles, but Parkhill said the company now expects a sharp double-digit decline in system shipments over the rest of the year as price increases take hold.

HP is already adapting by pushing lower-memory configurations and onboarding new suppliers, including reportedly exploring cheaper Chinese memory sources. Ketan Patel, HP's president of personal systems, said the company wants to "leverage part of our broad portfolio with silicon diversity" to offer different configurations and introduce low-memory options.

HP isn’t alone; Lenovo warned partners in late February to lock in orders by February 28 to avoid post-March price hikes on DRAM and NAND, while Dell told partners in December to expect price increases of up to 30%. Acer and Asus have also both confirmed they will pass higher memory costs through to consumers. TrendForce projects Q1 2026 will bring a record 90%-95% quarter-over-quarter jump in PC DRAM contract prices.

The knock-on effects of all this will extend (and already are extending) well beyond traditional PCs. Valve confirmed the Steam Deck is sold out globally due to memory and storage shortages, while Framework has raised DDR5 RAM upgrade prices by 50% for its DIY laptop edition in December and warned prices would likely rise again. Motherboard sales in some markets have dropped as much as 50% as builders balk at the cost of memory.

A more bearish outlook

IDC published its own updated forecast on February 26, and its numbers are now worse than Gartner's across the board. IDC projects the worldwide PC market will decline 11.3% in 2026, exceeding Gartner's 10.4%. Its smartphone outlook is even worse, with IDC expecting a 12.9% decline, far steeper than Gartner's 8.4%. Both figures represent a dramatic downward revision from IDC's December 2025 scenarios, which ranged from -4.9% to -8.9% for PCs and -2.9% to -5.2% for smartphones.

Part of this worsening picture is a pull-forward effect caused by PC and smartphone vendors shipping aggressively in Q4 2025 and into Q1 2026, rushing to get products out before memory price increases took full effect. IDC expects volumes to fall off dramatically starting in Q2. PC revenues will still grow 1.6% in 2026 thanks to higher ASPs, but neither market is expected to rebound until 2028.

IDC, like Gartner, sees the most damage at the budget-end of the market. More than 360 million smartphones shipped below $150 last year, and IDC said rising memory costs are rendering that price band unsustainable. Ultra-low-end smartphones below $50 could cease to exist, potentially reversing smartphone penetration gains in emerging markets. IDC does not expect a return to 2025 pricing within its forecast horizon.

Could things improve?

Potentially. Some prices are now stabilizing, though at levels that remain two to three times higher than mid-2025, and European DDR5 pricing has shown modest corrections from early-February peaks. If new memory fab capacity comes online faster than expected, or if AI infrastructure spending plateaus — unlikely — the worst-case scenarios may not fully materialize.

But the structural driver of this crisis, the deliberate reallocation of memory manufacturing capacity from consumer DRAM and NAND toward AI-focused HBM and high-density server modules, doesn’t look to be going anywhere, anytime soon. Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have all prioritized HBM production, with Micron even controversially shuttering its Crucial consumer business, while TrendForce bleakly estimates that data centers will consume 70% of all memory chips manufactured in 2026.

Gartner advised vendors to accept unit volume declines rather than erode margins chasing price-sensitive buyers, and flagged the first half of 2026 as a critical window for optimizing pricing before component inflation compresses profitability further in Q2 and beyond. For consumers and builders, the calculus is straightforward: the era of cheap memory that defined the last several years of PC building is over, and nothing in the current data suggests it will return soon.

Scalpers are reportedly deploying web scrapers to make a quick buck while we’re deep in the memory and storage chip crisis. According to DataDome, a firm that protects websites and other online assets from automated attacks run through bots and AI, it has detected an operation trolling for the latest pricing data on memory modules and their components, sending queries every 6.5 seconds — that’s over 550 requests for each page, resulting in more than 50,000 requests per hour in total. The company says that it has blocked over 10 million requests that have been sent by the scalping bot, even using advanced techniques like cache-busting and ensuring that the request frequency stays under the alarm thresholds that companies use to protect their websites.

What’s interesting is that the bot isn’t just looking at consumer products. Instead, it was also looking at various levels of the supply chain, including DIMM sockets and CAMM2 connectors, as well as industrial memory modules designed for B2B transactions.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen scalpers take advantage of a supply situation in the electronics and computer industry. In fact, this has been a problem with every item that’s been limited or is experiencing a shortage in recent history, like the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Anniversary pre-orders, RTX 5090 GPUs a few days after its launch, the limited edition MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z, and even scalpers taking advantage of selling DDR5 kits for 7x their original value on eBay. But what’s insidious about this operation is that it seems to be a deliberate attack orchestrated by an organized entity with access to sophisticated bots.

DataDome said that the bots used a day-and-night pattern to mimic human activity and also deployed cache-busting parameters — that is, the addition of unique parameters to every request to ensure that they get the latest information and not the one stored in cache. Despite that, there were several telltale signs that these were automated bots. For example, they exclusively targeted RAM listings, and they didn’t interact with other site features like search or shopping cart. The traffic also did not vary to consider breaks, reduced traffic during weekends, and the peak in activity during early evening. When the bot encountered a technical issue, the traffic dropped considerably for several minutes before returning to 100% capacity — something that just does not happen with organic human traffic.

This incident shows how bad the AI infrastructure build-out is hitting the memory and storage industries. Data centers are already expected to consume nearly 70% of the world’s memory supply this year, resulting in limited stocks for every other segment. If this continues in the next several years, analysts say that this will spell the end of entry-level PCs by 2028. We hope that the memory chip manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix increase their manufacturing capacity to stabilize prices once more, but this is easier said than done, with new fabs and production lines taking several months, if not years, to build from scratch.

As someone who covers and checks deals on a daily basis, I get to see the fluctuations of prices and stock levels not only as a shopper but also as a PC enthusiast. Many of the parts and components I look at, we've either reviewed or written news about, and in some cases, we even own. I can't comment on the motherboard in today's combo deal from Newegg, but I can praise the Patriot RAM included in the bundle, as I own 64GB of the stuff when I put together a 9800X3D gaming rig early last year, and the 64GB of memory has been flawless, although it did cost substantially less when I made my purchase.

Today, Newegg has two combo offerings featuring an identical motherboard and Patriot Viper Venom RAM, although they are of differing speeds and capacities. The first bundle consists of 32GB of Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-6400 RAM and an Asus ROG Strix B850-A Gaming WiFi R2 motherboard for $449.99, reduced from $599.98. The second combo pairs 64GB of Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-6000 RAM and the same Asus ROG Strix B850-A Gaming WiFi R2 mobo for $749.99, marked down from $959.98.

• Grab this 32GB deal at Newegg
• Grab this 64GB deal at Newegg

The Asus ROG Strix B850-A Gaming Wifi R2 motherboard ($259.99 list price) is currently on sale individually for $209.99. The board supports AMD's AM5-based processors and is compatible with the latest AM5 CPUs, such as the Ryzen 7 9805X3D that was recently launched. The board uses a budget, yet feature-rich B850 chipset, with four M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0), Wi-Fi 7, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, and Q-Release latches for tool-less installation of components.

The RAM on offer comes in two flavors. The first bundle uses 32GB of Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 6400MT/s memory with timings of 32-40-40-84, and a CAS latency of CL32 with a voltage of 1.40V. Our second bundle pairs the slightly slower, but doubled capacity 64GB kit of Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 6000MT/s memory with timings of 36-36-36-76, and a CAS latency of CL36 with a voltage of 1.35V.

As far as buying advice goes, the first bundle with 32GB of RAM is more than adequate for a very respectable gaming PC build, but if there is a distinct need for more RAM, then it's going to cost a further $300 for double the memory capacity. The 64GB kit is also marginally slower, but at a barely perceivable level, with both kits being in the sweet spot range for AM5 CPUs.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

HP revealed during its Q1 2026 earnings call on Tuesday, Feb. 25, that memory now accounts for 35% of the cost of materials needed to build a PC, up from between 15% and 18% last quarter. The PC maker's CFO, Karen Parkhill, said memory costs increased roughly 100% sequentially from Q1 to Q2, with expectations for further increases throughout the year.

Interim CEO Bruce Broussard told investors the company has responded by securing long-term supply agreements for the year and has "qualified new suppliers [and] built in strategic inventory positions for key platforms and cut the time to qualify new material in half to accelerate our product configuration changes." The company has also "expanded lower-cost sourcing across our commodity basket, lowering logistics costs with agile end-to-end planning processes," he said. HP is using internal AI initiatives to power those new supply chain processes.

This dramatic increase in cost pressure of course reflects the ongoing DRAM shortage, which is being driven by AI and datacenter demand. Memory manufacturers Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have been prioritizing production of high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators over consumer DRAM, creating severe supply constraints for PC makers. TrendForce projects PC DRAM contract prices will increase 90% to 95% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2026, setting a record for quarterly price surges.

Despite the cost pressures, HP reported strong Q1 results with total revenue of $14.4 billion, up 7% year-over-year. The Personal Systems division saw unit sales increase 14% in consumer and 11% in commercial segments, driven by Windows 11 upgrade cycles and growing AI PC adoption. HP's president for personal systems, Ketan Patel, said AI PCs now represent 35% of the company's PC shipments, up from 30% in the prior quarter.

However, Parkhill warned investors that Personal Systems operating margins will remain below HP's long-term range for the remainder of fiscal 2026 due to memory cost pressures. The company maintained its full-year guidance but expects results to land at the lower end of the range.

HP is not alone in facing these challenges. Dell and Lenovo have issued similar warnings about rising component costs and tighter margins. Parkhill said HP is “aligned with industry experts” projecting the PC market will contract by double digits in calendar year 2026 as manufacturers pass higher costs to consumers through price increases.

Meanwhile, HP says that it’s continuing to work with over 100 software developers to drive AI PC adoption as one strategy to maintain demand despite higher prices.

A Reddit user posted on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit to showcase their unexpected Corsair 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM haul. According to u/AccomplishedFan8690, they bought a single 32GB kit online for $300, but they were surprised to find an entire box arriving on their doorstep. The box contains 10 32GB kits, totalling 320GB. If we look at current pricing on Amazon for the best gaming RAM, most 32GB Corsair kits cost around $400, meaning this complete package is actually worth around $4,000 or more. With no motherboard offering that kind of DIMM support, and 32GB being the sweet spot for gaming, they won’t be able to use all 10 kits, which likely consist of a total of 20 sticks. Instead, they plan to sell the extra RAM for under the current inflated prices.

So it happened to me from r/pcmasterrace

We’re unsure how this happened (or if it definitely happened), but sellers making mistakes in packing and sending orders are not unheard of. For example, a Samsung customer ordered two 9100 Pro SSDs late last year, but received 20 instead, while an Amazon customer canceled their Asus ROG Astra RTX 5080 order and just refunded, but the expensive GPU was delivered anyway. One commenter suggested that the person packing the order saw “1 box” on the order label and assumed that it was an entire box of RAM kits and not just one piece.

This would’ve been an amazing haul last year before the memory chip shortage, but given that prices have jumped by 500% in the last quarter of 2025, one could say that this is absolute gold. Some European retailers are reporting that RAM prices are slowly stabilizing, with some models even cutting prices. However, PC manufacturers continue to warn about looming price hikes, with a U.S.-based retailer saying that it will have to pass on costs to its customers once its existing inventory runs out.

The memory chip shortage is brought about by the massive demand of AI hyperscalers as they rush to build data centers to support the massive demand for compute. However, this is driven by investors pouring billions of dollars into AI, not by organic growth from customers. Some industry experts are even doubting the sustainability of all this spending, saying that there is “no way” that all these infrastructure costs can turn a profit. There really is no telling what the future will bring for RAM pricing, but in the meantime, we can just let u/AccomplishedFan8690 enjoy all that RAM and share the extra at lower prices with some of the lucky few.

German data center operator Hetzner announced today that it’s raising prices across its cloud, dedicated server, storage, and load balancer products starting April 1, 2026, because of what it described as "drastic price increases in various areas in the IT sector." The increases affect both new orders and existing subscriptions across the company's European, U.S., and Singapore data centers — and for many products, the increases are substantial.

The full breakdown is listed on Hetzner Docs, but among the most striking are cloud server prices in Germany and Finland, which are rising by 30% to 37% depending on the tier. The entry-level CX23 cloud instance, for example, goes from €2.99 to €3.99 per month, while Arm-based CAX instances see similar increases. The CPX and CCX shared and dedicated-vCPU lines are in the same range, with CCX dedicated-vCPU cloud servers rising by around 30% across the board in the United States.

Dedicated servers are seeing smaller but still meaningful increases. The popular EX44 climbs from €42.30 to €47.30 per month in Germany, while GPU server pricing on the GEX44 jumps from €182.30 to €212.30. All Server Auction listings are receiving a flat 3% increase. Object storage base pricing rises from €4.99 to €6.49 per month, a ~30% increase.

This announcement marks the second time this month that Hetzner has raised its prices, after setup fees were hiked on February 2 due to “exceptionally high purchase prices for hardware components”.

In this case, Hetzner attributed the changes to rising infrastructure operating costs and increased hardware acquisition prices, and said it had "genuinely tried hard to optimize" costs before making the move. The backdrop of all this is, of course, DRAM prices, which surged roughly 171% year-over-year through 2025 as AI infrastructure buildout drove high-bandwidth memory demand and ate into the supply of commodity DRAM.

Samsung raised server memory contract prices by up to 60% over the same period, and Dell executives flagged "unprecedented" memory shortages in public comments to investors. European cloud provider OVHcloud has separately projected 5% to 10% price increases of its own between April and September 2026, though Hetzner's announced increases are considerably steeper.

Hetzner, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Germany, operates data centers in Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki, Virginia, and Oregon. The April 1 effective date gives existing customers roughly five weeks' notice before charges change.

As prices of DDR5 memory kits set records in the U.S., in Europe they begin to show signs of descend. At least, this is what a DDR5 pricing graph published to a renowned PC enthusiasts community is meant to show. We also analyzed the pricing of several DDR5 kits from prominent suppliers in Germany, and we can certainly say that these kits cost less than they used to cost just weeks ago.

The chart allegedly depicts aggregated pricing of an 'average' 32 GB DDR5 kit across the European Union from late July 2025 to February 2026. Prices hovered around €95 (minimum, green) – €100 (average, blue) through early autumn, then began climbing sharply in October, accelerating through November and peaking in early February at roughly €430 – €470 on average, with minimum prices slightly lower. Toward the end of the period, both lines trend downward, which may either indicate a modest correction after the spike or an actual drop in prices due to certain factors.

While the graph from deserves attention, it lacks clarity and details (which kits, which countries, retailers, is VAT included, etc.), so we decided to do our own price trend checks of five popular 32 GB DDR5-6000/6400 dual-channel kits* from renowned brands like Crucial, Corsair, G.Skill, Kingston, and Patriot in Amazon Germany using the CamelCamelCamel service.

Among the 32 GB DDR5-6000/6400 kits that we checked, only two models — from Corsair and Kingston — demonstrated steep declines: from around €480 in early February to around €425 now for Corsair and from around €550 in early January to €463 at press time for Kingston. Nonetheless, all memory kits that we checked are now priced below their peaks several weeks ago. Note that all retail prices in Europe include VAT, unlike retail prices in the U.S.

We also checked price trends for the same 32 GB DDR5 kits in the U.S., and while the prices are far from where they were in September, some of them (G.Skill, Patriot) are also showing a modest correction, though we certainly cannot say that they are heading downwards.

While $400 is certainly way too high for a 32 GB DDR5-6000 memory kit in 2026, we are not going to see prices decline to normal levels due to shortages of memory chips, which is going to happen either when excessive demand for all kinds of memory drops, when new DRAM production capacities come online in late 2026 – 2027, or when DRAM makers transit to more efficient process technologies. Yet, the signs of correction clearly show that the retail DDR5 kits' prices are way too high, which affects demand significantly enough for retailers to slash their price tags.

*We used the following kits for our checks, as memory prices currently depend on supply, we did not specify based on whether the kits feature AMD Expo or Intel XMP profiles:

• Crucial Pro 32 GB DDR5-6400 (CP2K16G64C38U5B)
• Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB DDR5-6000 (CMH32GX5M2E6000C36)
• G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32 GB DDR5-6000 (F5-6000J3636F16GX2-FX5)
• Kingston Fury Beast 32 GB DDR5-6000 (KF560C30BBEK2-32)
• Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB DDR5-6000 (PVV532G600C36K)

CES 2026 is a show that usually paints us a picture of what's to come. But this year was different. Dominated by AI and a handful of product launches in Panther Lake and AMD's new AI 400 chips, there wasn't exactly a whole lot to see. When the Consumer Electronics Show starts looking like the Corporate Electronics Show, alarm bells should start going off in your head.

Sure, Nvidia's upcoming Rubin platform looks incredibly impressive, but there were no new consumer GPUs to speak of. There is little to show what actual consumers and enthusiasts might look forward to for the rest of the year, and that's not only illustrated by what our staff on the show floor had to say, but also by the companies and supporting industries around it.

Now, we don't have to get into all the reasons why there's an ongoing NAND and DRAM shortage; we've explained it multiple times before. But, how far-reaching are the impacts of the current demand for AI chips, and why is it going this far? The picture that current market conditions paint is grim, and it's already too late to prepare for the great consumer chip winter upon us.

Everyone is affected

As tech enthusiasts, everyone wants something new to look forward to. A new chip on the latest leading-edge nodes, packed to the gills with power to run the most demanding games without breaking a sweat. Breakthroughs in efficiency to bring down power envelopes and chips to break records with. But, none of that seems to be happening in 2026 (Unless you were one of the lucky few who purchased the $5000 MSI Lightning Z RTX 5090).

Now, according to a Bloomberg report, the current tightened chip supply might push Sony's next PlayStation consoles to 2028 or 2029, with Nintendo contemplating raising the price of its Switch 2 consoles. Valve's Steam Frame VR Headset and Steam Console still don't have any pricing details announced, as the company struggles to keep its four-year-old Steam Deck in stock. We've seen some impact on DIY hardware, too, with AMD explaining that they've seen an uptick in AM4-based builds, over the newer DDR5-only AM5, likely due to how expensive memory has become for builders.

But it's not just gaming companies that are feeling the pinch. DRAM and NAND chips soaring to eye-watering levels are having a considerable impact on other areas. Think about every device that might use a RAM IC or house a small bit of flash. Entry-level electronics like smartphones, and much more, all rely on memory and flash in some capacity, and are also affected by pricing pressure. Even electronics such as routers are vulnerable to these pricing shifts. So, once current stocks run out, manufacturers and companies will have to buy at market rates, which are being pushed significantly higher due to AI data center demands.

The auto industry has also been subject to the onslaught of AI demand. EVs and other vehicles use specially qualified ICs (AEC-Q100) for use in extreme temperatures, and once stocks are gone, companies may find themselves scrambling for supply. “It’s not that we can no longer make semiconductors, or we can’t make enough semiconductors. We’re in a situation where the industry is constrained by qualification and requalification,” said Akshay Baliga, director at AlixPartners, in a recent interview with Tom's Hardware Premium. Qualifying these specialty chips, which are comparatively low-margin compared to AI, means that memory makers have their eyes on a much bigger prize: the lucrative AI market.

The industry stands on a cliff's edge

New reports suggest that memory makers are set to earn a staggering $551 billion thanks to the AI boom, but it comes at a dear price. Additionally, memory and flash supply contracts are reportedly getting shorter: even if a company had a contract in place to lock pricing in, shorter contracts mean that companies become more exposed to market volatility, so end-product pricing and BOM costs could fluctuate. The obvious adjustment that product manufacturers might make is to adjust MSRP pricing on existing and upcoming retail products. This is likely one of the key reasons we're not seeing companies like Valve announce pricing on upcoming consumer hardware quite yet. No one can predict how high market pricing might get. This market pricing will inevitably affect consumer and enterprise products.

 "The combined effect of these factors [related to increased memory prices] has resulted in a decline in mid to low-end [smartphone processor] orders received by foundries," said Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of SMIC, during an earnings call with financial analysts and investors.

Haijun continued to say that the ongoing cost increases may end up in a decline in demand for products, which may lead to disastrous consequences for some companies that rely on such chips.

Smaller electronics-makers may be disproportionally affected

To put the economics of how this all works into context, if you are a larger customer of DRAM, the likelihood is that you can secure better terms or contracts for pricing; the smaller you are, the less leverage you'll ultimately have. When combined with the fact that the AI industry is not only sucking up demand, but paying top-dollar for chips, means that smaller customers of DRAM and NAND are pulling the short straw, and might be more heavily affected.

Framework's latest update on the ongoing crisis states that DDR5 memory pricing is now between $12-16 per gigabyte, and their end product pricing has to be increased as a result of that. "The new system and Mainboard prices are 6-16% higher than before. We anticipate that here as well, costs from our suppliers are going to continue to increase over the next few months," says Nirav Patel, CEO and Founder of Framework.

So, if costs get higher, and consumer appetite for these products is lower, the future for smaller manufacturers gets called into question: How will they survive if product run-rates get lower, margins get slimmer, and there's seemingly no end in sight? The reality is, it's already too late to prepare for what's to come over the next few years, and the damage to these smaller companies has yet to be fully quantified.

IDC's latest analysis suggests that the PC market alone could shrink by up to 9%, which may not sound like much on paper, but a figure like this might be life-or-death for some businesses. If the chip supply crisis is hitting the PC market this hard alone, what about other industries, where the risk has yet to be factored in?

Why AI has an insatiable appetite for chips

Now that we've laid out the effects of AI demand on the memory and storage industries, it's important to note exactly how AI is using these chips in large-scale deployments across the globe. The average Nvidia Rubin NVL72 superchip is equipped with 288 GB of HBM 4 memory, which uses vertically stacked memory ICs, bonded together to offer more density in the same physical footprint. Therefore, High Bandwidth Memory requires around three times the number of ICs on a single chip compared to a DDR5 module. That's in addition to 128 GB of GDDR7 VRAM on the Nvidia CPX GPU on any single unit. Bolstered by high-speed data interconnects like Spectrum-X Photonics Ethernet, and Quantum-CX-9 Photonics for scale out (Photonics is another AI bottleneck, which is next-in-line after memory and packaging).

A single Nvidia Rubin NVL144 rack integrates 144 GPUs, equating to a staggering 20,736 TB of HBM 4 memory. So, if you're wondering where all the memory is going, look no further. The reasons behind these massive AI demands are the scale of AI model sizes. As models become larger, the number of parameters and weights associated with them also increases. This creates a demand for fast compute performance in loading model weights, which is why the interface width of HBM is so crucially important, with a rapid interface to keep up with demand when saturated. For example, Moonshot AI's Kimi 2.5 offers 1 trillion parameters in its latest Mixture of Experts (MoE) model, and can only be run in full-fat form on data-center-grade hardware.

Per-bit quantization is also a huge factor in AI deployment. Effectively, an AI model's weights (or 'experts' in an MoE model) are high-precision values, mapped to lower-precision data types. This results in a lower bit-density per-weight, which also affects the amount of VRAM used by the model. Nvidia's NVFP4 format can offer a substantial reduction in memory usage. But, despite efficiency gains thanks to breakthroughs like NVFP4, KVCache, or Deepseek's Engram, the race toward AGI means that frontier model developers want to get their hands on all of the compute power they can get if they want to train, develop, and run the latest and greatest models at scale.

The product winter is only beginning

Spending on AI infrastructure (which includes memory and storage chips at an eye-watering scale) could surpass $3 trillion over the next five years. Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have also dedicated around $650 billion in CapEx in 2026 alone to facilitate these AI capabilities. The long-term outlook as a result of this level of spending remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: not every company that we know today will survive the deep product winter that we're already in.

"Consumer electronics will see a large number of failures. From the end of this year to 2026, many system vendors will go bankrupt or exit product lines due to a lack of memory." Phison CEO Pua Khein-Seng reportedly said in a recent interview. He reportedly added that the soonest we might see reprieve from the ongoing AI onslaught is by 2030 at the earliest, or another decade.

The last helicopters have already left, and the consumer electronics industry, while remaining clearly profitable for a select few, might be unrecognizable once this is all over. Wrap yourself up warm, and arm yourself with as much compute as you reasonably require; it might be a long wait until a new norm is established.

A charming video from a Turkish wedding reveals a delighted bride and groom being showered with opulent gifts, as per tradition. However, this happy couple isn’t seen being weighed down in gold and jewelry, as if typically the case, instead they are collecting the ultimate riches of the PC tech world – GPUs, RAM, and processors.

The video clip embedded below (expand the tweet to see it) begins with the groom being presented with an MSI Suprim GeForce RTX 5090 in white. The multi-thousand-dollar GPU is hung around the groom's neck using red ribbons. Next up, the same wedding guest presents the bride with a quad-channel DDR5 memory kit, again lashed together using red ribbons. If the guy who presented these tech delights wasn’t the ‘best man’, he is now.

Another wedding guest steps to the fore and adds an Intel Core Ultra Unlocked processor to the groom’s gifts. The subtitles read “right now it’s a full computer set” (machine translation). So, we guess bulky items like the case, motherboard, and PSU weren’t suitable for hanging upon the newlyweds.

Something old
Something GPU
Something borrowed
And something from team Blue

My step-sister married into a Turkish family. It was probably nearly 20 years ago, but I don’t remember her getting any computer tech gifts. The wedding did involve a lot of gold and AK47s, though.

We’ve recently reported on the value of both DRAM and NAND ICs rising above gold, by weight. Such reports may have inspired the Turkish wedding guests in their lovely video clip.

However, we note that while gold never tarnishes, diamonds are forever, cash is king, and happiness is a warm AK47 - an RTX 5090 is probably only going to be serviceable for about a decade, if it doesn’t self-combust in the interim. Meanwhile, a large number of economists and tech watchers expect there to be a sharp correction in the AI-stoked RAM and NAND markets, in due course.

We don’t want to be Debbie Downers about this wedding, though, and wish the bride and groom a long, blissful, and lag-free marriage.

It's long been said that the insane rise in DRAM pricing would eventually affect common household electronics, and those predictions are starting to come true, likely sooner than most people imagine or would like to admit. The latest casualty is the market for ISP-provided broadband routers, set-top boxes (STBs), and gateways, which could see prices for the memory they require rise sevenfold.

Counterpoint researchers state that this steep climb should last at least through June, and is likely to continue due to the ongoing supply crisis. Whereas memory used to account for about 3% of the average bill of materials (BOM) for producing one of these pieces of equipment, that percentage has now ballooned to 20%, and it will have an outsized influence on the equipment's final price.

While this likely won't have a direct impact on the monthly price of your internet connection, the usual "free installation" and similar deals, such as a free set-top box, may disappear over time. The graph below shows a significant difference in LPDDR4 pricing for mobile phones versus the standard DDR4 used in consumer-facing telco gear.

According to Counterpoint, routers could be affected the most, as the OEMs of these devices don't tend to have the kind of negotiation power and long-term supply contracts as the bigger industry players. DDR4 was already being phased out before the crisis hit, and supply constraints forced a surge in prices. The fact that the AI craze led to the addition of memory-hogging features in routers and STBs didn't help matters, as some equipment has as much RAM as a common PC.

The market researchers also note that this problem may even affect ISP fiber rollouts. It's not hard to imagine that the combined price of the equipment becomes a significant factor, especially when the time comes to pass the costs on to consumers, who may balk at paying for equipment that was often "free" for many years.

Even big telecom and phone gear manufacturers have started specifically calling out the problem in their quarterly earnings statements. In the statement for its Q4 2025 results, Nokia's CEO said that although "at a macro level across the company, [RAM pricing] is not a huge part", the firm intends to "secure the supply based on the commitments [it does have]" and that "[it expects ] to be passed through to pricing".

Meanwhile, MediaTek reportedly stated that it's got enough memory for its datacenter needs, but that for other segments it will "adjust its pricing to reflect the rising supply chain costs and allocate our supply across products based on the overall profitability". Likewise, Qualcomm's CEO said that, with data centers as priority #1, "industry-wide memory shortage and price increases are likely to define the overall scale of the handset industry through the fiscal year."

The high price of commodity memory will inevitably affect the prices — and, eventually, shipments — of inexpensive consumer electronics (CE), as makers of entry-level products are less likely to absorb increased costs. As a result, fabless developers of chips are revising their orders to foundries in order to adjust their inventory, in accordance with what they believe the market needs, said co-chief executive of SMIC, China's top foundry. Interestingly, he also mentioned memory overbooking as a factor affecting memory prices, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

 "The combined effect of these factors [related to increased memory prices] has resulted in a decline in mid to low-end [smartphone processor] orders received by foundries," said Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of SMIC, during an earnings call with financial analysts and investors. "End user companies in these segments are facing pressure from both tight supply and rising prices for memory chips. Even if end user companies can pass on these cost increase to consumers via end-product price rises. Such moves will lead to a decline in demand for end products."

Zhao mentioned overbooking as one of the factors that contributed to the sharp rise of 3D NAND and DRAM prices, as many makers of PCs and smartphone tried to order more memory than they needed — which caused prices to skyrocket, and forced many of them adjust their business outlook.

SMIC's executive already discussed this situation back in November, claiming that, as makers of inexpensive CE and smartphones struggle to obtain memory and face excessive prices, they adjust their inventory of entry-level and mid-tier application processors so they don't sit on stocks full of system-on-chips (SoC) while being unable to produce handsets. As a result, SMIC's clients among developers of mobile SoCs also altered their orders accordingly.

More recently, executives of TSMC confirmed that they expected minimal smartphone processor unit growth, primarily due to volume declines of entry-level and mainstream SoCs. TSMC is somewhat immune to such demand drops, however, as the majority of application processors it produces are aimed at high-end, mainstream smartphones, which are less sensitive to fluctuations of DRAM and 3D NAND prices.

"As for PC or the smartphone, to tell the truth, we expect a higher memory price, so we expect the unit growth will be very minimal," C.C. Wei, chief executive of TSMC, told analysts and investors. "But for TSMC, we did not feel our customers changed their behavior. […] We supply most of the high-end smartphones. The high-end smartphone is less sensitive to the memory price. So, the demand is still strong."

It's worth noting that despite declining sales of SoCs for inexpensive handsets, SMIC does not expect its revenues to decline sharply — as, for now, SMIC has some 'protection' against such drops. The company believes that as China adopts more and more chips that are developed and made domestically, it will have enough orders to maintain its growth.

" In 2026, the effects of industrial chain reshoring from overseas and domestic customers, new products, replacing legacy overseas products will persist, creating sustained incremental growth opportunities for the domestic industrial chain," Zhao said.

Memory pricing cycles are nothing new, but the way it’s being sold is changing. Over the past several months, Samsung and SK hynix have begun moving away from long-term, fixed-price supply contracts, replacing them with shorter agreements and post-settlement pricing mechanisms that allow prices to be adjusted after delivery. Micron is also understood to be following a similar path.

According to reporting cited by DigiTimes, these newer contracts are appearing at the same time as the sharp upswing in DRAM and NAND pricing we’ve been watching unfold with relentless escalation, driven primarily by AI infrastructure demand and constrained supply at advanced nodes. Memory makers are expected to make over $551 billion in revenue in 2026.

Where buyers once locked in prices for six to 12 months at a time with limited scope for renegotiation, suppliers are now favoring contracts measured in quarters or even months, with pricing that’s particularly exposed to market movements, which shifts the risk back onto buyers.

Post-settlement pricing reflects supplier confidence

Under traditional agreements, DRAM and NAND prices are set at the time of signing. Even if spot prices move sharply, quarter renegotiation typically adjusts pricing within a narrow band of roughly 10%. These arrangements gave the market’s largest buyers cost predictability and insulated them from short-term instability.

Post-settlement pricing does the opposite. While products are delivered at the agreed price during the contract term, the final payment is adjusted at the end of the term to reflect prevailing market prices. If prices rise materially — as with DRAM in recent months — customers pay the difference. On the other hand, suppliers absorb the loss if prices fall.

Now, according to industry sources cited by Digitimes, Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have all signed such contracts, primarily with large North American technology companies. One source noted that, for major customers, securing memory supply has become a higher priority than locking in price certainty, even if that means paying more later. This is nothing more than fundamental supply and demand dynamics that were bound to come into play given the state of the market in recent months.

It’s important to note that these post-settlement pricing arrangements only work if suppliers are confident that prices will remain elevated, because why would they push for them otherwise? The willingness of all the big three memory makers to adopt post-settlement pricing, unfortunately, suggests they are.

Contract lengths shrink alongside price flexibility

Pricing is not all that's changing — contract durations are also getting shorter. Memory buyers, particularly hyperscalers, are understood to have pushed for longer-term agreements to guarantee supply as demand for high-capacity memory accelerates while supply tightens. Suppliers are obviously starting to push back against those terms, opting instead for contracts lasting mere months. DigiTimes, citing Korean-language publication ET News, gave the example of a North American data center operator failing to secure a two-year supply deal from one memory vendor, subsequently sourcing capacity from another supplier under a shorter contract that included post-settlement pricing.

These supplier-favoring terms are expected to persist at least through the second half of the year, when the pace of memory price increases is projected by some analysts to plateau somewhat. Even then, few expect a return to the long, fixed-price contracts that dominated during the initial post-pandemic years, and who's to say that pricing will start to slow down in any case?

The current state of the memory market is without precedent, strangled tighter and tighter with each passing day by the unrelenting demands of an out-of-control AI bubble. While we have seen some levelling off in recent weeks, it’s borderline impossible to make any meaningful predictions in good faith about where memory pricing may or may not be even next month; we can forget about where it might be six months or more from now because there’s simply no telling.

Operating margins now at 40-50%

Recent analysis from ZDNet shows just how favorable this market has become for suppliers. It projects that Samsung and SK hynix could post NAND operating margins of 40-50% for the first half of 2026, levels that would have seemed implausible during the oversupply conditions we saw in 2022 and early 2023. Those margins are predicated not just on higher prices, but disciplined supply management and a willingness to walk away from unfavorable contracts.

ZDNet notes that the industry expects that NAND products will reach record profitability for the first time since 2017, adding that its margins are estimated to have climbed into the 20% range in Q4 2025. NAND prices are expected to rise in stages across Q1 and Q2 of this year, with conservative capital spending continuing to tighten supply and contribute to what is becoming a chronic shortage.

Not all buyers are feeling the effects of this equally, though. Apple is one company that, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, has shifted its memory price negotiations from a six-monthly to quarterly cadence. He expects LPDDR prices to rise in Apple’s first fiscal quarter of 2026, with further increases likely in the following quarter. NAND price increases are expected to be more modest.

Kuo also notes that many smartphone brands are struggling to secure sufficient memory supply even when they’re willing to pay higher prices. Some Chinese vendors have reportedly delayed product launches or reduced hardware specifications as a result. But Apple’s position is different: While higher memory costs could pressure gross margins in the near term, Kuo suggests the iPhone maker is willing to absorb those costs to protect shipment volumes, adding that Apple is considering keeping its starting prices for its planned iPhone 18 lineup largely unchanged.

All these factors together demonstrate that there’s a structural shift taking place in how memory is allocated and sold. The balance of power has moved firmly back toward suppliers, and that’s causing contract terms to adjust accordingly.

This doesn’t mean that prices will rise indefinitely. Memory remains a cyclical, capital-intensive industry, and periods of high profitability tend to attract overinvestment. But the current contract changes suggest that suppliers are prioritizing margin discipline and pricing flexibility over volume stability, and will continue to do so in at least the medium term.

The ongoing memory chip shortage is forcing leading PC makers to consider sources outside of the traditional big three suppliers — Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix. According to Nikkei, sources say that Dell and HP have started qualifying DRAM from CXMT, while Acer and Asus are asking their Chinese partners to source Chinese-made memory chips — a departure from the usual, where manufacturers would source key components like processors, GPUs, screens, and memory, while the contract partners handled less critical parts and final assembly.

AI tech companies have been pouring money into AI infrastructure build-outs, with the major memory manufacturers allocating more of their production lines to the more lucrative HBM. This means that manufacturing capacity for the more price-sensitive consumer market has gone down, with not enough memory chips getting delivered to satisfy global demand. This is where Chinese memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and NAND chip manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp. (YMTC) come in, with the two companies reportedly increasing their output to fill the gap in consumer demand.

Although HP and Dell are already qualifying CXMT’s chips, that does not mean that they’ll automatically order memory modules from them. Still, the two companies are reportedly doing that to give them alternative sources should the memory shortage continue well beyond the second half of this year. Although GPU vendor Sapphire predicts that DRAM prices will stabilize by then, it’s still wise for manufacturers to have a fallback position in case the situation does not improve.

CXMT isn’t banned in the U.S., although it’s facing scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Defense added it to its list of companies suspected of aiding the Chinese military. There have been allegations that ex-Samsung employees stole 10nm DRAM tech and leaked it to the Chinese company. Aside from that, businesses must consider the specter of tariffs, too; although the U.S. and China agreed on a one-year truce, there’s no telling what will happen once that agreement expires. Still, the memory chip supply instability means that companies might be willing to take these risks, as not having the memory chips they need to launch new products and keep prices in check might even be more damaging in the short term.

Asus, Dell, and HP did not comment on the Nikkei story, although sources cited say that HP will only put the CXMT chips in devices for non-U.S. markets. On the other hand, Acer said to the publication, “We do not disclose our suppliers, but we keep in close contact with multiple global manufacturers and suppliers to dynamically adjust operations to manage component price changes. We work with multiple manufacturers and suppliers to enhance our supply chain resilience.”

China’s two largest memory manufacturers, CXMT and YMTC, are said to each be embarking on an unprecedented expansion spree as, amid a global memory shortage, they see a golden opportunity to close the gap with the big-three incumbents Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron.

The two Chinese memory giants want to significantly expand their respective DRAM and NAND production over the next two years, according to reporting by Nikkei Asia, as AI infrastructure continues to squeeze the memory sector dry. The expansions, which are understood to center on new fabs in Shanghai and Wuhan, come as the big three continue to prioritize HBM output for AI accelerators over conventional DRAM.

New fabs targeted for 2027

CXMT is preparing a major DRAM facility in Shanghai that’s expected to be two-to-three times larger than its existing Hefei headquarters, with equipment and installation beginning later this year and volume production targeted for 2027. YMTC, traditionally a NAND flash supplier, is constructing a third fab in Wuhan that will also come online around 2027. Roughly half of that facility’s planned output is expected to be dedicated to DRAM rather than NAND — a significant deviation from the norm for YMTC.

“The company’s plants in Hefei and Beijing are already running at full capacity,” a source told Nikkei Asia, adding that CXMT sees very high demand from local companies to expand capacity as soon as possible. Samsung and SK hynix have both warned customers that memory supply tightness is likely to persist into 2027 as they continue allocating capacity to AI.

YMTC pivots to HBM

Commodity DDR5 for PCs and servers is constrained primarily because suppliers have redirected investment and wafer starts toward HBM, which carries substantially higher margins and is essential for AI accelerators. SK hynix currently dominates this space, supplying around 60% of global output, with Samsung and Micron splitting most of the remainder. All three vendors are expanding HBM capacity, but doing so comes at the expense of conventional DRAM, which has rocketed in price, creating a massive demand-side gap among consumers calling for more supply.

CXMT and YMTC clearly want to fill this gap. While the former remains a few generations behind the leading edge, it has demonstrated working DDR5 designs — mass production is still delayed — and has reportedly delivered HBM samples to domestic AI customers, including Huawei. Chinese sources cited by Nikkei suggest that CXMT intends to add dedicated HBM3 production lines as part of its Shanghai fab, with initial volumes aimed at domestic AI accelerators.

Meanwhile, YMTC is leveraging its packaging expertise to move into HBM. Rather than competing head-to-head with CXMT on DRAM process technology, YMTC is expected to focus on advanced assembly and HBM integration, working with local partners to produce memory stacks suitable for AI workloads. 50% of the company’s new plant’s capacity will produce DRAM, according to Nikkei. “They [YMTC] started to develop their own DRAM more than two years ago… now it’s only a matter of time for them to produce quality DRAM and HBM going forward,” said one of YMTC’s suppliers

A rock and a hard place

If successful, these expansion efforts will give China a vertically integrated domestic HBM supply chain, spanning DRAM wafer fabrication, stacking, and final assembly, without relying on outsiders.

That is exactly the outcome that the U.S. and its allies have attempted to slow down through export controls that restrict Chinese access to advanced manufacturing equipment. Currently, rules limit tool sales for sub-18nm DRAM processes and 128-layer or more 3D NAND, and explicitly target advanced packaging technologies relevant to HBM.

Despite these restrictions, Chinese memory makers have continued to make incremental progress by relying on older-generation tools and domestic equipment vendors. CXMT’s recent and unexpected demonstrations of high-speed DDR5 and LPDDR5X parts seriously highlight just how much headroom for progress still exists even in the absence of advanced tooling like EUV.

While it’s likely that Chinese HBM will trail the latest HBM3E and HBM4 designs from the likes of Samsung and SK, both in terms of bandwidth and density, it may be more than sufficient for domestic AI deployments. This creates an uncomfortable tradeoff for Western legislators and policymakers because any further tightening of export controls will just accelerate China’s push towards full self-sufficiency, while relaxing them would ease global shortages but undermine the intent of the restrictions.

Micron had already effectively lost access to the Chinese market following Beijing’s restrictions on its products in 2023, leaving Samsung and SK hynix as the primary foreign suppliers. Both Samsung and SK hynix operate large fabs in China that are now frozen in time due to U.S. rules, and both are investing heavily in next-gen memory outside China to stay ahead in HBM. As Chinese DRAM output rises, it’s entirely conceivable that both might look to exit the Chinese market entirely due to lack of viability, particularly if domestic progress emboldens Beijing to impose even tighter restrictions.

Expansion efforts by Chinese firms do not currently threaten the big three in high-end HBM, but they make waves in the DRAM market. Additional Chinese capacity aimed at domestic consumption reduces China’s dependence on imports and weakens the pricing power of global suppliers over time. In a market that’s already prone to relentless boom-bust cycles, any additional capacity could amplify volatility once, or if, AI demand stabilizes.