If you wanted to build or upgrade a PC around the turn of 2025 and 2026, you probably got an unpleasant surprise: RAM, SSDs and graphics cards suddenly cost far more than just a few months earlier. This was not a normal seasonal swing, but the biggest jump in memory prices in years. Let us explain what happened, why, what prices look like today and what to expect. All figures below are based on publicly available market reports and are approximate.

What happened at the end of 2025

From autumn 2025, prices of RAM and SSD storage started climbing steeply, and by early 2026 graphics cards joined in. The market earned the nickname “memory supercycle”. For a regular buyer it meant that the same RAM or SSD that cost a “normal” price in summer 2025 was two or more times more expensive a few months later. Some retailers (for example in Tokyo’s Akihabara district) even limited the number of units per customer to prevent hoarding.

Why: artificial intelligence “ate” the memory

The main cause is the AI boom. AI data centers need huge amounts of special memory (HBM, High Bandwidth Memory) that sits next to powerful AI chips. So the three big memory makers (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) redirected production capacity away from regular RAM and NAND (the chips inside SSDs) toward the more profitable HBM for AI.

The result: there was suddenly little regular DDR5 and DDR4 RAM and NAND for SSDs, yet demand did not disappear. When something is scarce and everyone wants it, the price goes up. Importantly, this is not a short-term blip, but a longer-lasting shift of capacity toward AI. For a sense of scale: the Stargate project (a large AI infrastructure effort) alone could reportedly consume around 40% of global DRAM output.

How much it went up

Concrete figures from market reports speak clearly:

  • RAM (DRAM): memory prices rose roughly 170% or more during 2025. The price of a single 16Gb DDR5 chip went from about $6.8 (September 2025) to over $27 (December 2025), with peaks even higher. DDR5 modules more than doubled in some markets.
  • SSD (NAND): consumer SSDs sometimes doubled in price - for example a 1 TB SSD jumped from roughly $45 to nearly $90. Enterprise SSDs rose 40 to 50% in the last quarter of 2025.
  • Pre-built PCs: makers like HP admitted that memory suddenly makes up around 35% of a PC’s component cost (up from 15 to 18%). Dell and Lenovo raised prices by 15 to 20% between December 2025 and January 2026.
  • Graphics cards: Nvidia and AMD announced price increases from early 2026, since graphics memory (GDDR6/GDDR7) is scarce too. On some high-end cards, memory now accounts for over 80% of the parts cost. Factor that in when choosing a card, more in how to choose a graphics card.

What prices look like today

As of mid-2026, prices remain high and the shortage continues. Manufacturers reported that 2026 capacity is largely sold out in advance, so a quick drop is not expected. In other words: today you pay significantly more for RAM and SSDs than in the first half of 2025, and you need to budget for it. How to choose memory sensibly is covered in how to choose RAM, and for storage in how to choose a drive.

The outlook

Here we have to be honest: these are estimates and forecasts, not certain numbers. Across sources there is agreement that it will not be fast:

  • Micron’s CEO expected a tight market through 2027, with gradual improvement in 2028.
  • New production capacity (chip fabs) will not arrive in volume before late 2027, pushing real relief into 2028 to 2029.
  • Some analyses (SK Hynix, Kearney) are even more cautious and talk about a tight market until 2030.

And one more unpleasant note: even when prices gradually fall, they probably will not return to 2024 levels. The market will likely settle on a new, higher “normal” price. Behind all of this is demand for AI, which we cover in our AI overview.

What it means for you

  • No need to panic, but do not pointlessly delay a purchase hoping for a quick drop - forecasts say it will not come soon.
  • If your PC works, consider whether you really need the RAM/SSD upgrade now, or whether it can wait.
  • For a new machine, plan a higher budget for memory and storage than a year ago.
  • Do not buy too much “as a stockpile” at inflated prices - buy as much as you actually need.
  • For business hardware refreshes, it pays to plan ahead and buy early.

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This article is part of our Hardware and PC components overview.