The global memory-chip shortage will cost us all

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If you had put all your savings into a few pallets of computer memory chips a year ago, you’d have at least doubled your money by now. And prices are projected to continue their meteoric rise.

Behind the value of one of the world’s fastest-appreciating assets is the voracious appetite of AI companies. These same chips—mainly what’s known as RAM, but also the storage chips often called flash or solid-state memory—are required for almost every digital device on the planet. And just three companies make more than 90% of them: SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron.

Prices for memory shot up 50% in the last quarter of 2025 and are projected to increase another 40% to 50% by the end of the first quarter of 2026, according to Counterpoint Research, fueled mainly by builders of data centers, who are willing to pay huge premiums. Because AI firms are crowding out other buyers of memory, unexpected consequences are likely to reverberate across countless industries. Effects could include delayed data centers, higher prices for laptops, TVs and other consumer electronics, and possible chip shortages for automakers that would delay vehicle production, in a potential repeat of the pandemic car crisis.

“I have tracked the memory sector for almost 20 years, and this time really is different," says Avril Wu, senior research vice president at Taipei, Taiwan-based TrendForce, which tracks the global semiconductor industry. “It really is the craziest time ever." Analysts last year said limited electrical power was the primary speed bump for new AI supercomputer construction in 2026 and beyond. A memory crunch was barely on their radar.