There is a worldwide RAM shortage, along with low GPU supplies. Both of these issues are caused by AI companies buying both of these products in bulk. Due to this, many companies that produce RAM or GPU, such as Micron and Nvidia, have decided to only sell to AI companies. This has caused prices for RAM and GPUs to skyrocket, creating problems for both consumers and other companies that rely on these devices. Nearly every device that uses memory will be affected by this shortage, including cameras, gaming consoles, and tablets. With this shortage, PC’s and their builders are facing hardships and rising expenses. Due to AI, RAM has tripled, even quadrupled in price. A $200 32GB stick of RAM now costs around $500, with some sticks even costing up to $800.
Now, people who need RAM sticks to build their PC are restricted from it, due to the crazy price spikes. RAM is vital for PCs, as it works as the PC’s data holder and short-term memory. Video game consoles are not exempt from these effects. Xbox has been experiencing multiple price increases throughout 2025, due to market conditions, tariffs, and now RAM. Now, the standard Xbox Series X rose from $600 to $650, and the 2TB version went from $730 to $800! And though the PS5’s price hasn’t been affected by the RAM shortage, it has affected PlayStation in another way. PlayStation announced in December that it would be delaying the development of the PS6, which is very likely to push back its release to around 2029-30. They said they made this choice as if they tried to release earlier, it would force them to greatly increase the price of the console at release.
As stated before, this shortage is directly caused by AI. AI data centers require massive amounts of memory to run their programs and software. This requires these AI companies to purchase memory and other components in bulk. There are only a few huge manufacturers of memory and RAM, and some, including Micron and Nvidia, have learned that they will make billions more if they only sell all their products to AI companies and forget about the rest of the market. This has led some of these companies to leave behind all non-AI consumers and focus all production on memory for AI data centers. Now, unless you stockpiled memory before the shortage, most people have no way to buy affordable memory and have to wait out the shortage.
This whole situation is also quite similar to the GPU shortage that was occurring around 2017-2018, as crypto miners were buying out all GPUs, causing the price of them to rise dramatically. This ended once the crypto bubble burst, causing the crypto to crash in value. Many people believe that the RAM shortage won’t slow down until the AI bubble bursts. As of now, there isn’t much hope of the shortage slowing. Some good news though is that OpenAI, one of the biggest AI companies, is at great financial risk. The company is struggling to make back money, and could lose up to $14 billion in 2026. And expats say they are heading towards bankruptcy in 2027. This would help reduce the amount of RAM being bought for AI data centers. Hopefully, the RAM and memory market can recover sooner than we think, and these important electronic devices can become more affordable.
