Data centers will consume 70 percent of memory chips made in 2026 - supply shortfall will cause the chip shortage to spread to other segments
Soon enough, you might not even be able to buy a calculator.
The tech press has been lit up like Chernobyl reactor #4 for months about shortages in memory, solid-state drives, and hard drives. The shortages are driven by explosive AI demand, and the latest report says that up to 70 percent of the memory produced worldwide in 2026 will be consumed by data centers. However, those specific topics have yet to be part of the global zeitgeist. That's quickly changing, as evidenced by a Wall Street Journal article (WSJ) describing just how dire the situation is, and how the fallout from the RAM shortage is set to irradiate several markets not directly linked to computing.
The WSJ details how the exponential rise in memory is all but guaranteed to hit the automotive sector, TVs, and consumer electronics, among many others. The publication goes as far as comparing the automobile situation to the production delays experienced during Covid, an event nobody has fond memories of.
Even though cars and most consumer gear use older types of memory, RAM makers have downsized or discontinued production of legacy chips altogether. To bluntly illustrate the point, the article cites Counterpoint Research's MS Hwang: "you gotta buy a plane ticket and get that allocation from manufacturers right now," going on to say that manufacturing capacity for 2028 is already being sold, never mind this year.
To state that most everything these days uses RAM is obvious, but even common household items like televisions, Bluetooth speakers, set-top boxes, and even "smart" appliances like fridges could become extremely pricey. The margins on these items are razor-thin, and one key component, like memory multiplying in price, implies a cost that manufacturers will be willing or unable to afford, thus passing it to the customer, assuming there is even any memory available to make the devices.
While component prices across all areas of industry float all the time, the waves are generally temporary enough to keep prices level, but that's not the case this time around. For his part, Huang thinks that RAM might become as much as 10% of the price of most electronics and 30% of the bill on items like smartphones.
IDC already updated its 2026 forecast with a 5% dip in smartphone sales and 9% on PCs — deals that may be altered further in just a few months' time. The firm also calls the current situation a "permanent reallocation" of supplier capacity towards AI datacenters. TrendForce's Avril Wu concurs, as "[she has] tracked the memory sector for almost 20 years, and this time really is different [...] It really is the craziest time ever."
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Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.
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bit_user Reply
First, how much of it did they historically consume? At least, over the last few years? Second, is this before or after accounting for the latest price projections?The article said:The shortages are driven by explosive AI demand, and the latest report says that up to 70 percent of the memory produced worldwide in 2026 will be consumed by data centers.
Finally, when people talk about "memory chips", in general, I assume they mean NAND and DRAM. You mentioned "RAM", but some confirmation they're not also talking about NAND chips would be nice. If you do mean just DRAM, I'd suggest using that in the headline, to minimize room for confusion.
I see what you did there.The article said:The tech press has been lit up like Chernobyl reactor #4 ... the fallout from the RAM shortage is set to irradiate ...
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Zaranthos Supply and demand. This will eventually fix itself. They cut production and then the AI boom started gobbling up memory supply. Now they're building more manufacturing. Eventually the AI boom will soften as compute exceeds demand and then the memory makers will beg the average consumer to build new computers and buy their stuff at discounted prices for more advanced products. We all win in the end as technology rockets forward and eventually supply again exceeds demand. Maybe my next computer build will us cheap HBM instead of RAM or something better.Reply
Until then my latest computer build is not all that much faster for daily use than my last computer despite being more expensive and over 10 years more advanced. Any good computer build has a lot of life in it even for decent gaming with minimal upgrades. I don't have to keep buying your overpriced stuff, I can simply wait until you price it so it's worthwhile for me to upgrade. -
valthuer Data centers eating 70% of global memory just shows how transformative this tech really is. But starving automotive and consumer electronics of even legacy RAM feels like an industry coordination failure, not progress.Reply
This is a once-in-a-generation shift, and it needs smarter capacity planning — otherwise the AI revolution ends up making everyday tech worse and more expensive for everyone.
Incredible future ahead… if we don’t bottleneck ourselves on memory. -
Neilbob I think I still have 4Gb of Crucial Ballistix DDR-400 memory kicking around somewhere. I could get the timings on it really tight as well.Reply
Wonder if it's possible that it could gain a new lease of life. -
JayGau Reply
Your next computer will be in the cloud and cost you a 65$/month subscription fee. Those corporations don't even hide it anymore, Bezos said it clearly last week. They want to control everything and killing personal computers is the next step. You say you don't need to buy their expensive stuff. You gonna have fun when a crappy virtual computer with awful input lag will cost you almost 1000$ a year, and you won't even own it.Zaranthos said:Supply and demand. This will eventually fix itself. They cut production and then the AI boom started gobbling up memory supply. Now they're building more manufacturing. Eventually the AI boom will soften as compute exceeds demand and then the memory makers will beg the average consumer to build new computers and buy their stuff at discounted prices for more advanced products. We all win in the end as technology rockets forward and eventually supply again exceeds demand. Maybe my next computer build will us cheap HBM instead of RAM or something better.
Until then my latest computer build is not all that much faster for daily use than my last computer despite being more expensive and over 10 years more advanced. Any good computer build has a lot of life in it even for decent gaming with minimal upgrades. I don't have to keep buying your overpriced stuff, I can simply wait until you price it so it's worthwhile for me to upgrade. -
bit_user Reply
I used to worry about this, but I don't any more. Home PCs will continue to be a thing for at least another decade, if not two.JayGau said:Your next computer will be in the cloud and cost you a 65$/month subscription fee. Those corporations don't even hide it anymore, Bezos said it clearly last week. They want to control everything and killing personal computers is the next step. You say you don't need to buy their expensive stuff. You gonna have fun when a crappy virtual computer with awful input lag will cost you almost 1000$ a year, and you won't even own it.
At worst, I could see the concept of socketed CPUs going away. More likely, what will change is that DRAM moves on package, however I'm no longer even so sure about that!
I've said before that what I think should happen to GPUs is that they move from being plugged into a PCIe slot to having a radiator-type form factor and connect to the motherboard via cable. -
JayGau Reply
I hope you are right, but like I said, big-tech CEOs are now openly saying it's their goal. The only way to prevent it is to acknowledge it's happening and fight it by refusing to use subscription services. It's ironic but this could definitely happen if people stop buying hardware, thinking that it will force those corporations to listen to us and lower their prices, while it's exactly what those CEOs want so they can sell us their subscriptions at attracting prices at first and ramp them up when it becomes the only available option.bit_user said:I used to worry about this, but I don't any more. Home PCs will continue to be a thing for at least another decade, if not two.
At worst, I could see the concept of socketed CPUs going away. More likely, what will change is that DRAM moves on package, however I'm no longer even so sure about that!
I've said before that what I think should happen to GPUs is that they move from being plugged into a PCIe slot to having a radiator-type form factor and connect to the motherboard via cable. -
bit_user Reply
Eh, I just take them to mean that you won't need a PC, not that they'll stop being sold!JayGau said:I hope you are right, but like I said, big-tech CEOs are now openly saying it's their goal.
I got an AWS account, last year, just for a little experimentation. The hourly rates, on something like a quad-core Xeon, were quite affordable. However, I almost lost sleep over the fear of leaving something running or enabled that would continue to rack up charges to my account, and then only discover it, upon getting a multi-$k bill, at the end of the month!JayGau said:The only way to prevent it is to acknowledge it's happening and fight it by refusing to use subscription services.
If cloud computing were a little more user-friendly and had safeguards, so you didn't have to worry about stuff like that, then I'd be more amenable to it, but never to the point of ditching my home PCs or even keeping most of my data in the cloud.
IMO, there are bigger things to worry about, before something like that ever happens.JayGau said:It's ironic but this could definitely happen if people stop buying hardware, thinking that it will force those corporations to listen to us and lower their prices, while it's exactly what those CEOs want so they can sell us their subscriptions at attracting prices at first and ramp them up when it becomes the only available option. -
Nomadish Reply
Naw. Boycotts dont work. They dont care. If you want them to care you have to make them and if you cant hit them in their profits and they have bought Washington those options are few. This is all part of a design to rob us of our ability to own our own pcs and there are a huge number of reasons this can never be allowed to happen and some of those reasons are not being talked about.JayGau said:I hope you are right, but like I said, big-tech CEOs are now openly saying it's their goal. The only way to prevent it is to acknowledge it's happening and fight it by refusing to use subscription services. It's ironic but this could definitely happen if people stop buying hardware, thinking that it will force those corporations to listen to us and lower their prices, while it's exactly what those CEOs want so they can sell us their subscriptions at attracting prices at first and ramp them up when it becomes the only available option.
The government has made many deals with big tech including just outright buying a large stake in Intel. If we are moved to cloud computing what do you think that means? To me it means the government has leverage to punish companies that dont do what they want like turning over user data and limiting/controlling the flow of information. -
LordVile Reply
How is it transformative exactly? Currently all it’s doing is regurgitating slop and being frequently wrong. Also it’s not scaling with hardware and all good data that is available has been expended in training. This is with no end product in sight and no one aside from Nvidia turning a profit. At some stage this will collapse as what possible product could come out and be profitable enough to ever turn a profit?valthuer said:Data centers eating 70% of global memory just shows how transformative this tech really is. But starving automotive and consumer electronics of even legacy RAM feels like an industry coordination failure, not progress.
This is a once-in-a-generation shift, and it needs smarter capacity planning — otherwise the AI revolution ends up making everyday tech worse and more expensive for everyone.
Incredible future ahead… if we don’t bottleneck ourselves on memory.