“Prices are going to rise next year,” says Ma Zhiyu, Xiaomi’s marketing director. The reason is that there are components whose price is sky-high, and is expected to continue increasing. We talk about the NAND and DRAM memories, whose cost has skyrocketed due to the huge demand caused by AI data centers.
Frightening. This is how Ma Zhiyu has described the storage prices expected for next year, as stated in IThome. The manager took to Weibo to comment on his impressions about the cost projections for next year. According to a recent report by Korea Economic DailySamsung and SK Hynix notified their customers that they would apply increases of up to 30% in NAND and DRAM memories in the fourth quarter of the year.
Figures. According to the Taiwanese CTEE mediumthe price of DRAM memories has increased by 171% year-on-year, more than increases in the price of gold. Demand driven by AI boom, especially in DDR5 memory modules. To put it in context, a 16GB DDR5 module used to cost between $7 and $8, but since September it costs $13. As for NAND memories for SSDs and servers, the increase is estimated at 50%.
Mobile phones too. The most affected products are those that require more memory, such as PCs and laptops, but Ma warns that it will affect any device that uses memory. This increase will also have an impact on mobile phones, especially those that have more storage such as the 512GB or 1TB versions.
More memory, more expensive. In a post on Weibo, Sun Cun, product director at Redmiresponded to users who complained that they couldn’t afford the 12+512GB version. “We cannot change the trend of the global supply chain. Prices are going to rise next year,” he said. Furthermore, recently they announced a discount 300 yuan on the 512GB version of the Redmi K90 and warned that it could be the last chance to get such an offer.
The bottomless pit of AI. The AI race is about computing power, which means building many data centersand these data centers need many componentsincluding GPUs which, in turn, require enormous amounts of memory. The result: shortages, customers lining up to get memories and sky-high prices.
It will get worse. The worst thing is that this has just begun, or so some experts predict. Tom’s Hardware publishes the statements of Chen Libai, CEO of ADATA, who believes that in 2026 the shortage will be even greater. It will still take a while to see the impact in stores and it will gradually spread, but it is a matter of time before the domino effect reaches us. If you are thinking of buying SSD, expanding the memory of your PC or changing your mobile phone, perhaps it is time to do so.
Image | Samsung, Xataka
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