Due to the ongoing AI arms race, the market has been hit with a massive RAM shortage. RAM, or memory, is a crucial part of most modern-day electronics. From tablets and computers to phones and even cars and things as miniscule as apps, everything somewhat relies on RAM. With that in mind, it’s no surprise AI processors rely on it as well.
That is now an issue because AI’s huge growth recently has caused manufacturers to focus on production being put towards AI data centers and away from the consumer. Estimates from as early as October 2025 have been saying that now, RAM manufacturers are devoting around 40% of all RAM produced towards AI. This has greatly affected the tech market, as RAM prices have skyrocketed, and ready-bought products like phones that use RAM are also likely to increase in price.
These increases in price are not small either, with RAM kits such as the G.Skill Trident Z5 64 GB DDR5-6400 CL32, which was around $170 in August, now going for $779.99 at retailers like Amazon. That is an increase of around 4.5x within the span of six months. This sharp price raise isn’t only affecting consumers, however. As Samsung has recently had internal struggles with not being able to purchase RAM from its own Samsung manufacturers to use on phones and other products, due to their manufacturer also wishing to allocate more of their RAM production towards AI, the deal between Samsung Electronics and Samsung Semiconductor Global has been jeopardized and possibly changed for the future. This could mean all Samsung Electronics products may soon increase in price.
One particular community highly affected by this is the gaming community, with outrage online from PC builders, as they were some of the first to notice the worrisome trend. Due to most RAM-using devices not yet hiking in price drastically, only those who had a need to buy RAM by itself noticed the price change beginning. As such, many gamers that were once in support of AI have begun to publicly denounce it. Some are still hopeful that the situation will either resolve soon or that lower RAM limits will lead to an era of optimization, where high RAM amounts won’t be needed, as new computers are now being released with lower memory specs. This has also nearly killed the wave of AI PCs, as many of the AI-powered laptops and computers that had entered the market simply cannot be made effectively under these lower RAM restrictions.
