• The biggest names in the AI industry, including Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic, are buying up DRAM for their data centers in huge amounts. To make matters worse, the big companies that produce this DRAM such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, are shifting their resources away from consumer-focused products in favor of lucrative deals with these AI companies for DRAM.
  
  
• Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron control 93% of the entire global DRAM market. Any other company has a market share of less than 5%.
  
  
• Micron went so far as to announce they are winding down their long-standing consumer facing brand Crucial in favor of providing DRAM to AI companies.
  
  
• A key component for making DRAM is silicon wafers; however, these wafers are also used for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) which are used heavily by AI companies. Per NAND Research, “wafer capacity consumed by HBM exceeds that of standard DRAM by a factor of three.” Obviously, this further exacerbates the shortage of DRAM as the AI companies don't just require tons of it, but there are also less silicon wafers that can be used to make DRAM.
  
  
• Among the obvious things like consoles and PC's, DRAM is used in practically everything nowadays, including smartphones, smart TVs, and cars. It is basically the backbone of modern computing of any kind.
  
  
• SSD's are also being affected, as AI companies are also buying up data storage for their centers as well.
  
  
• As a result of this increased demand and shift in supply priority, RAM kit prices have increased by 252% from September to December, while the average price for SSD's has seen a 42% increase in the same time period.
  
  
• For some perspective, the Nintendo Switch 2 uses 12 GB LPDDR5X modules which have increased in price by 41%, and NAND flash which has risen by 8%. The likelihood that Nintendo will be able to absorb that increased cost is very low, and could force the company to increase the price of the Nintendo Switch 2.
  

(Dec 18th, 2025, 02:13 AM)Maniakkid25 Wrote:

Welp, as if there needed to be another thing to drive up the price of a Steam Machine...

Asha Sharma Wrote:

We are in a hardware component crisis. When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall. These costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory. While the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half decade. We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.

• Fall 2025 - Original price of components
  
• February 2026 - Price of console storage components up by more than 2x (e.g. $100 > $200)
  
• June 2026 - Price of console storage components doubled again (e.g. $200 > $400)
  

(Jun 13th, 2026, 11:09 PM)Karo Wrote:

And if they keep going up your honestly better off just buying an actual PC and those aren't doing much better pricewise I'm sure. 

I honestly expect a pretty bleak Christmas season for gaming.

(Jun 14th, 2026, 12:09 AM)Karo Wrote:

I guess the post burst would mean thing would get a lot more cheap, but I'm not sure if people would wanna put money into their hobbies during it?

(Jun 12th, 2026, 07:20 PM)Moonface Wrote:

An interesting insight into the current state of things from a recent Xbox blog post:

Asha Sharma Wrote:

We are in a hardware component crisis. When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall. These costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory. While the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half decade. We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.

Source: Xbox | Next 100 Days: XBOX Reset

That's absolutely insane, and I also think the 5x price increase for 2027 is probably too low, considering the timeline given for price increases in that statement:

• Fall 2025 - Original price of components
  
• February 2026 - Price of console storage components up by more than 2x (e.g. $100 > $200)
  
• June 2026 - Price of console storage components doubled again (e.g. $200 > $400)
  

If prices have hit 4x the original amount in the span of 4 months, there's no way it's only going to increase by 1x more between now and Fall 2027 unless demand for storage components from AI companies stagnates or something.

Tom's Hardware Wrote:

SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung recently warned that 2027 will be the worst year for memory supply in the industry's history, forecasting that demand will outstrip their ability to produce it well into 2030. ADATA's Chairman, Simon Chen, was even more pessimistic, suggesting this DRAM crisis could last another 10 years and dismissing the idea of an "AI bubble" bursting anytime soon.

(Aug 19th, 2026, 11:19 PM)Moonface Wrote:

On the bright side, maybe the stagnation of hardware will finally force more developers to optimize their shit and get more out of less, which I feel like has become less of a thing compared to a few console generations ago.