A remarkable rebound to the prices of NAND memories (used in SSD units) and the drams of our PCs and laptops is coming. For two years users We have benefited From a time of bonanza in these components, but that ends. And the AI and fever has the fault to create more and more data centers.
When the memoirs were cheap. In March 2023 The prices of the NAND and dram memories were falling to lead. The pandemia had caused an extraordinary demand, but once the confinement ended, the situation was invested. The manufacturers had produced too much – waiting for the demand to remain – and found an exaggerated inventory. People no longer wanted so many memory modules or so many SSD units, and prices collapsed.
AI changes everything (and this, too). The effects of that imbalance have been extended for two years, but the arrival of Chatgpt caused a Fever by the AI that has ended up causing another fever: that of the data centers. These facilities use thousands of GPUS and these GPUS make use of huge amounts of memory. Above all, HBM memories that Since its creation They were oriented to business applications: they were much more expensive, but also much more powerful.
Price evolution of SSD Samsung 980 Pro of 1 TB. In mid -2023 the units raised their lowest price. From there, the price began to rise. Source: Camelcamelcamel.
Price increases will go to more. SSD units such as Samsung 980 Pro of 1 TB are a good example of what is happening. In Camelcamelcamel We can see that evolution of prices that marks minimal in mid -2023 and then rise. These units have been replaced by the 990 pro of 1 TB with an evolution less pronounced in the increasestrue (in fact, it is around 100 euros, an interesting price), but everything indicates that this curve will soon follow the tendency of its predecessor.
The forecasts of the Trendforce consultant are clear: the DRAM and NAND memories are going to climb a lot and very fast.
And the DRAM memories will also go up. The prediction is the same for the DRAM memories market that, for example, are used in the DDR4 and DDR5 memory modules of our PCs and laptops. According to Trendforce In the third quarter of 2025 – which has just begun – we will see a rise of more than 40% in DDR4 memory modules. In the case of GDDR5 memories we will have a break and the climb will reach 8%.
Most expensive pcs and gaming. This type of increases especially affects the end users who buy PCs and laptops to work, but also to play. Memory modules for graphics cards will also notice this quarter notably according to Trendforce. The GDDR6 memories will do it up to 33% and the GDDR7 up to 10% according to their estimates.
HBM memories to power. Data centers that now all large technological ones are rushing to build need huge amounts of memory, and that is conditioning the balance between supply and demand both in the business market and in the market for end users. In fact, memory manufacturers are increasingly focusing on focusing production on HBM memories – used in AI accelerators – and leaving traditional DRAM and Nand memories. Micron points out that its production of HBM modules for all 2026 It is already soldand SK Hynix seems to be in a similar situation: the demand for these modules is extraordinary.
The Raspberry Pi as an example. We are already seeing the consequences of this type of movements. The Raspberry Pi, who had gathered memory modules during the bonanza season, were forced to raise the prices of the new models a few days ago for the shortage of memory. Thus, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and 5 in their 4 GB variants rose five dollars, and those of 8 GB rose 10 dollars. The company’s own CEO, Eben Upton, explained that “memory costs about 120% more than it cost a year ago.”
Why not create more memoirs? The solution seems obvious: if more memories are needed, more factories should be created. However, manufacturers are reluctant to this for several reasons. The first, the enormous cost of these plants, which amounts to tens of billions of dollars. The second, that these factories take years in come to produce. And the third, who do not want there is a “AI bubble” and this explodes would make them meet again with an exaggerated inventory and some factories that they no longer need. Bad matter.
Image | Samsung
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