TechBackground

AI Demand Drives Sharp Surge in Memory Chip Prices

In late 2025, memory chip prices climbed sharply as AI data centres absorbed DRAM and high-bandwidth memory supply, leaving less for phones and PCs.

7 Nov 2026, 09:221 min read

This summary was written by AI to complete the context; it is not based on a current source.

Around November 2025, prices for memory chips rose sharply. The main cause was demand from artificial intelligence. Companies building AI data centres bought large volumes of DRAM, the memory used in almost every computing device, and of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a specialised, stacked memory used alongside AI processors.

The three largest memory makers, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, shifted production capacity toward HBM and server memory, which earn higher margins than the memory used in consumer devices. Building new factories takes years, so supply could not quickly expand to match demand.

The result was tighter availability and higher costs for makers of smartphones, laptops and other consumer electronics. Memory is one of the main components in these products, so rising prices threatened to push up retail prices or force manufacturers to cut specifications. The surge marked the point at which the AI investment boom began to visibly affect everyday consumer technology, a development later reflected in higher smartphone prices.