If in recent months you have noticed that building a PC is more expensive than expected or that consoles have become more expensive, there is a reason behind it. The main culprit of this situation is the large artificial intelligence companieswho are buying RAM memory wildly. For this they sign long term contracts with the three main manufacturing companies (Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron) to secure supply and build more AI data centers.

Because of the RAM crisis, some Apple devices have increased their price, and not a little.

RAM crisis could extend to 2030

This leaves ordinary consumers like us with the extra RAM and, applying capitalist rules, the price skyrockets both for us and for companies like Valve, PlayStation or Nintendo. If you want to know when it is crisis could stabilize or finish, the answer is that we could stay like this for a few more years. Micron just released results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2026 year, and the numbers are historic.

Micron has brought in $41.46 billion in revenue, almost $6 billion above Wall Street forecasts. But what is really worrying This is what the company has announced. According to The Register, Micron has signed 16 contracts strategic supply agreements with customers such as NVIDIA and Anthropic, most with a duration until 2030. This includes the purchase of $22 billion in upfront payments and future purchase commitments that, in total, total approximately $100 billion.

In other words: the AI giants have reserved RAM that they need for the next 5 years, and they have paid an abysmal amount of money up front before it is manufactured. The consequence is that the Remaining RAM manufactured by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron reaches the consumer market at a very high pricewhich means that to buy a 32 GB DDR5 module you have to pay at least 400 euros. For this same reason, a few hours ago Microsoft announced another price increase for XBOX Series X|S.

I hope you have a PC that lasts for many years, because buying a new one or upgrading it will be very expensive.

The problem is not the fact itself, but what it implies for consumers and the video game industry. There are those who believe that these contracts are designed expressly for expressly for keep prices high. Stifel, an investment bank, has explained that these contracts include guarantees on how much memory will be purchased and pricing rules designed to help Micron maintain its profits at the current record level. We must not forget that at the end of 2025 Micron decided to close its Crucial consumer memory brand to focus entirely on the server and artificial intelligence business.

Until now, the memory industry lived in chaotic cycles of overproduction and shortages that periodically lowered prices (even by 100 euros). That situation may not be repeated, and you just have to read what he says to the CEO of Micron. Sanjay Mehrotra has made it clear that the supply shortage will remain beyond 2027and that the company expects more than half of its revenue to come from these types of long-term contracts.

The uncomfortable reality is that RAM and storage prices are not going to go down as long as the demand for AI continues to grow at the current rate, unless Google’s RAM algorithm drastically changes the situation. It is time to admit that memory is no longer a component that becomes cheaper over time and is now a resource that big technology companies buy years in advance. Consumers are the last to receive any RAM, and the little that arrives is at exorbitant prices.

China wants to flood the RAM market

The only hope comes from china. Yes ok Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix are shielded with long-term contracts to maintain high prices, China is pushing its memory manufacturers (CXMT and YMTC) to expand their production capacity. Looking ahead to 2030, China wants to be able to produce all the chips it needs by itself and, in addition, eliminate weakening the manufacturers that now dominate the market. UBS, a Swiss investment bank, estimates that in 2026 alone China’s combined memory production could increase to between 120,000 and 140,000 memory wafers per month, and that in 2027 that capacity will continue to grow.

If that plan goes well, all that new production suddenly entering the world market could cause just the opposite of what Micron and company are looking for: a excess available memory around 2028 that forces prices to drop. Some analysts warn that we could live through a “super cycle” from memory, with years of skyrocketing demand and high prices followed by another sharp drop due to overproduction. Whether that final fall comes or not will depend on how long the AI ​​boom continues.

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