Ram Prices Set To Remain Steep Amid Global Shortage Crisis

The “RAMageddon” has become the new normal in the tech industry, with memory and storage shortages affecting nearly every market. According to Lenovo, the company’s recent presentation at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2026) emphasized that it will never be like it was last year when it comes to prices on RAM, flash memory, and other components. The executive’s statement came as a surprise to many, but it underscores the fundamental shift in the economics of the memory industry.

The memory shortage is attributed to growing demand for AI infrastructure, which has become a significant driver of consumption. Lenovo’s 5-Step RAMaggeddon Survival Guide outlined the company’s strategy to navigate this challenging environment. The guide advises users to diversify their supply chains, invest in emerging technologies like HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory), and prioritize energy-efficient solutions.

One key factor contributing to the shortage is the surge in demand for memory from AI-accelerated computing. The increasing use of GPUs in data centers has led to a significant increase in memory requirements, driving up prices for DRAM and NAND. Lenovo argues that even with new manufacturing capacity coming online around 2028, demand from AI infrastructure will continue to absorb most of the additional output, preventing DRAM and NAND prices from returning to the lows seen over the past two years.

The company points to SK hynix’s recently announced plans to triple its memory production capacity by 2034 as supporting evidence. However, Lenovo suggests that even if new manufacturing capacity is added, it may not be enough to meet the growing demand for AI-accelerated computing. The report notes that memory manufacturers would be unlikely to invest in expanding production if they expected a return to the razor-thin margins and oversupply that characterized parts of the market in early 2025.

The shortage has significant implications for server design and deployment. New dual-socket servers are on the way next year with 16 memory channels per processor, meaning that even a relatively modest configuration can require around 1 TB of installed memory to fully utilize the available bandwidth. This trend highlights the importance of considering memory capacity when designing and purchasing servers.

Lenovo is far from the only company predicting a prolonged memory crunch. Micron recently told investors it expects supply to remain constrained through at least 2027, with only gradual improvement beginning in 2028. SK hynix has warned that the shortage could persist until around 2030 as AI infrastructure continues absorbing wafer capacity. These forecasts are backed by multi-year supply agreements worth roughly $100 billion that Micron has already signed with customers, underscoring how seriously hyperscalers are treating long-term memory availability.

The shortage has also affected companies with significant purchasing power. Apple reportedly has sought permission from the U.S. government to source DRAM from Chinese memory maker CXMT, a Pentagon-blacklisted company. This move illustrates just how valuable additional memory supply has become as prices continue to climb. Memory vendors are enjoying some of the strongest pricing power and profit margins they’ve seen in years, giving them little incentive to accelerate a return to the boom-and-bust pricing cycles that once defined the DRAM market.

Interestingly, one consequence of the ongoing memory shortage is that HBM is becoming more economically attractive relative to conventional system memory. DRAM manufacturers have redirected significant production capacity toward higher-margin HBM for AI accelerators, reducing the supply of commodity DDR5 and LPDDR5 while demand for both remains elevated. As a result, the premium for HBM-backed computing has narrowed, not because HBM has become inexpensive, but because traditional system memory has become dramatically more expensive.

The shift in HBM’s economic attractiveness is crucial to understanding Lenovo’s suggestion that GPU-accelerated computing may now make more financial sense for some workloads. If an application can keep much of its working set in GPU-attached HBM, it may require significantly less DDR5 installed in the host system. With system DRAM now representing a much larger share of overall server cost than it did just a year ago, reducing memory capacity requirements can materially lower the price of deploying large-scale infrastructure.

While Lenovo’s long-term outlook remains to be seen, the company believes that the unusually inexpensive DRAM and NAND prices of 2024 and early 2025 may prove to have been an anomaly. The industry’s incentives are worth keeping in mind as we move forward. With hyperscalers continuing to pour billions into AI infrastructure and memory vendors increasingly prioritizing high-margin enterprise products, it is likely that the memory shortage will persist for some time.

The “RAMageddon” has become a new normal in the tech industry, driven by growing demand for AI infrastructure and the resulting memory shortage. Lenovo’s 5-Step RAMaggeddon Survival Guide outlines the company’s strategy to navigate this challenging environment, emphasizing the importance of diversifying supply chains, investing in emerging technologies like HBM, and prioritizing energy-efficient solutions. As we move forward, it is crucial to understand the trends driving the shortage and their implications for server design and deployment.

Micron exits consumer business as AI demand reshapes priorities - https://aiwirenews.com/posts/micron-abandons-consumer-market-amid-ai-boom-3e6397/

RAM makers are drowning in debt to keep up with AI’s chip appetite - https://aiwirenews.com/posts/memory-chip-industry-torn-apart-by-ai-frenzy-as-debt-levels-6d7546/

Entry-level PC market to ‘disappear’ by 2028 — rising memory prices pile more strain on consumer PC market

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