RAM prices have skyrocketed, which is bad news for people interested in buying, building or upgrading a computer this year, but probably good news for people exasperated by rumors of so-called AI PCs.
As Ars Technica has reported, growing data center demands, driven by the rise of AIhave caused a shortage of RAM and flash memory chips, which has sent prices soaring.
In an announcement today, Ben Yeh, principal analyst at technology research firm Omdia, said that in 2025, “conventional PC memory and storage costs increased by 40 to 70 percent, resulting in cost increases being passed on to customers.”
Overall, global PC shipments increased in 2025, according to Omdia (which pegged 9.2 percent growth compared to 2024) and IDC (which today reported 9.6 percent growth), but analysts expect PC sales to be more tumultuous in 2026.
“Next year is shaping up to be extremely volatile,” Jean Philippe Bouchard, vice president of research for IDC’s global mobile device trackers, said in a statement.
Both analyst firms expect PC makers to manage the RAM shortage by raising prices and releasing computers with lower memory specifications. IDC expects price increases of 15 to 20 percent and PC RAM specifications “to be reduced on average to preserve available memory inventory,” Bouchard said. Omdia’s Yeh expects “more efficient mid- to low-end configurations to protect margins.”
“This RAM shortage will last beyond 2026, and the cost-conscious part of the market is the one that will be hit the hardest,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for global mobile device trackers at IDC, told Ars via email.
IDC expects vendors to “prioritize premium and mid-range systems to offset higher component costs, especially memory.”
