RAM price increases and shortages have only just started, TeamGroup says

According to TeamGroup's general manager, Gerry Chen, contract pricing for DRAM and NAND products has once again surged, doubling as we head into December. As a prominent brand and name in the memory, solid-state storage, and flash-based markets, TeamGroup isn't predicting a turnaround, as availability and pricing are reportedly set to worsen throughout the first half of 2026.

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And the reason for this is that during this time, existing distribution and stockpiles will have been exhausted, making allocation and acquisition difficult across all corners of the tech industry - from AI to smartphones to PCs. An already bad situation is about to get worse. TeamGroup's Gerry Chen believes that pricing won't normalize until at least 2027 (via DigiTimes), with a timeline that could extend well into 2028.

And it won't even matter if you're willing to pay obscene, inflated prices, because supply will be limited and demand will increase. It's a grim prediction, especially when you factor in that even if the most prominent manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, or SK Hynix were to start building new memory fabs today, it would still take years to ramp up production.

The reasons for the memory shortages have been well publicized, as DRAM makers reallocate production to HBM for the AI sector and cloud systems. The rapid growth of AI and data centers, either under construction or being upgraded, has put a massive strain on all-flash memory and storage production.

And with limited capacity for PCs, smartphones, and consumer devices, dramatically inflated pricing for memory and storage will disrupt all corners of the consumer technology market. DRAM or memory pricing, which fluctuates like a commodity, has already led to PC DDR memory kit prices skyrocketing in recent weeks.