You’ve undoubtedly heard about the rising costs of RAM and storage over the past few months, but price hikes and yearly comparisons don’t always show the impact of the ongoing shortage. But a chart we recently saw really shows just how bad things are.
RAM (DRAM) and storage (SSD, NAND) costs have been rapidly rising over the past few months due to the simple laws of supply and demand. As AI continues to eat up more and more memory and storage, suppliers simply can’t keep up, and it’s simply impossible to spin up more production overnight.
In its earnings call this week, Samsung warned that the RAM crisis could get worse in 2027, as supply continues to be squeezed.
But what really shows how bad this situation has become is a chart shared by analyst @jukan05 on Twitter/X. Citing export prices for DRAM, we can see a steep rise in pricing this year. Just the difference between March 2026 and April 2026 is 26%, which continues the recent trend of the prices shooting up like a rocket launching for the moon.
If you weren’t worried about this whole situation, this is the chart that should just about strike fear in your heart.
Another chart shared shows how prices went up in April compared to March, showing rises in the cost of both RAM and specifically SSD storage. NAND storage actually went down slightly.
The impacts here are huge – there have been a ton of Android price hikes just today – and clearly we’re nowhere near the end of this.
So, buckle up – it’s a “mageddon.”
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