Through a recent increase in demand, sparked by a call for more AI data centers, the prices of RAM, GPUs and SSDs have risen significantly within the past couple of months.
The increase in demand for RAM (Random-Access Memory), short-term computer memory, has led to worldwide shortages. Rather than RAM suppliers ramping up consumer-side production, many are going all in on AI, mainly Micron, which produces Crucial RAM.
As this trend continues of large corporations selling out to AI, we will only see larger price tags on these parts and larger price tags on computers as a whole.
These price increases have taken a significant toll on the personal computer market, especially for consumers. Anyone who wants to build their own computer for work, school, or anything else is forced to pay a much higher price than before.
In June 2025, RAM prices were stable, hovering around $120 for 32 GB of the most up-to-date RAM, DDR5. However, in March 2026, RAM prices have been steadily increasing and are now up to $450. A 275% increase in less than a year.
The growing market of AI data centers has not only negatively affected RAM but also nearly every market for each component needed to run these data centers. This includes most computer components such as GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), SSDs (Solid State Drives), and HDDs (Hard Disk Drives).
This unique blend of price increases across the major computer parts has led to a never-before-seen price hike of nearly all forms of personal computers.
Typically, price increases are related to a specific part during a set period of time, for example, GPU prices from 2020 to 2023.
However, now we are seeing a union of price increases, which makes buying a computer as a consumer nearly impossible.
The reason that these computer parts are rising is that they are needed for nearly every facet of Artificial Intelligence, or AI. AI needs RAM to read through all that it processes every second. AI also relies on GPUs to handle the capacity of some of the tasks it runs through regularly (Intel). To store all of the information that AI processes every day, it requires SSDs, which provide lower latency or delay when transferring data.
This heavy price increase not only affects those wanting personal computers, but it also greatly impacts anyone searching for a laptop or a phone in the near and distant future.
Both laptops and phones use very similar technology and parts used in larger computers. This means that the higher demand for these parts will also affect phones and laptops just as much as larger computers.
Anyone unwilling to pay a higher premium for the same device will be forced to buy a worse product.