Anyone planning to update their IT equipment or purchase a new cell phone next year faces a complicated scenario. The technological market is going through what several analysts and specialized publications have already called “RAMageddon”. The prices of RAM memory (DRAM) and storage (NAND) entered an upward trajectory at the end of 2025, with forecasts pointing to a worsening of the situation during the first half of 2026. Artificial Intelligence is to blame.
This time, contrary to what has already happened, the genesis of this crisis does not lie in the scarcity of raw materials, but in a structural change in the production of semiconductor giants, such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. Faced with the explosion of Generative AI, the search for high bandwidth memories (HBM) destined for data centers has become the absolute priority. These components for AI servers offer substantially higher profit margins than memories intended for the consumer market.
Consequently, production lines that previously manufactured modules for personal computers were reconverted to fulfill orders from companies such as Nvidia and Google. Micron, for example, has signaled its progressive move away from the direct consumer market to focus on the enterprise sector. This deliberate reduction in the supply of conventional memories caused the price of DDR5 modules to register significant increases in the last quarter of 2025.
The resulting inflation in components will have a direct and inevitable impact on the final price of the products. According to data from consultants IDC and Counterpoint Research, it is estimated that personal and portable computers may experience an increase in price between 8% and 15% in 2026. In the segment of smartphonesthe expected average increase is set at 7%.
The impact will be particularly visible on mid-range and entry-level devices. To avoid prohibitive prices, it is expected that some manufacturers will choose to reduce memory capacity in their base models, reverting to 8GB RAM configurations in equipment where 12GB or 16GB were becoming the market standard.
Industry experts indicate that price stabilization should only occur in mid-2027, coinciding with the entry into operation of new semiconductor production units.