SIGNALInfrastructure Software·Jun 2, 2026, 2:02 PMSignal75Short term

Expect more of those DRAM price hikes as memory shortage continues to bite

Source: The Register

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Expect more of those DRAM price hikes as memory shortage continues to bite

Chip costs may rise another 63% this quarter, as effects feed through to PC pricing

Why this matters
Why now

The ongoing memory chip shortage, exacerbated by supply chain bottlenecks and increasing demand, is reaching a critical inflection point where price increases are expected to feed directly into end-user products.

Why it’s important

Sophisticated readers should care because sustained DRAM price hikes will impact the cost structure of all IT infrastructure, from PCs to data centers, influencing procurement strategies and potentially slowing technology adoption for some.

What changes

The cost of acquiring computing hardware, particularly PCs and servers reliant on DRAM, is now definitively higher for the immediate future, shifting budget allocations and potentially impacting IT refresh cycles.

Winners
  • · DRAM manufacturers
  • · Semiconductor foundries
  • · Memory component distributors
Losers
  • · PC manufacturers
  • · Data center operators
  • · Consumers
  • · Enterprise IT departments
Second-order effects
Direct

Higher chip costs lead to increased pricing for end-user devices and enterprise hardware.

Second

Enterprises may delay hardware upgrades, extending the lifespan of existing infrastructure and driving demand for cloud services.

Third

Prolonged high prices could spur investment in new memory manufacturing capacity, potentially leading to oversupply in the long term, or accelerate optimization efforts to reduce memory footprint at the software layer.

Editorial confidence: 90 / 100 · Structural impact: 60 / 100
Original report

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