'It really is the craziest time ever': RAM crisis will hit consumers hard (www.techradar.com)

A new report predicts a significant increase in RAM prices of 40% to 50% by the end of Q1 2026, following a 50% jump in late 2025. This surge is primarily driven by the booming demand from AI companies, which require substantial amounts of high-end memory for data centers supporting Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Copilot. Analysts suggest that these data centers may consume over 70% of the total high-end memory supply this year, sidelining other industries and leading to potential price hikes across a wide range of consumer electronics, from PCs to smart TVs. This RAM crisis echoes the supply chain disruptions experienced during the pandemic, with analysts warning of a permanent shift reallocating memory resources toward AI applications. Major memory manufacturers are ramping up production, but these efforts won't ease the situation until at least 2028. In the meantime, consumers may resort to buying used RAM or reclaiming memory from older servers as temporary solutions. The lasting implications for the technology landscape and consumer prices could be profound, as the increasing demand from AI applications continues to reshape the memory market.