RAM is crucial for modern devices—whether for browsers, gaming, or video editing. DDR5, the latest RAM generation, has seen dramatic price rises recently: a 64GB kit now costs over $500, double what it was only months ago. This increase is due to leading memory manufacturers—Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—redirecting production capacity from DDR5 to HBM (high bandwidth memory), needed for artificial intelligence.
Global tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia are heavily investing in building data centers to train large language models, resulting in a huge surge in HBM demand. To meet this, manufacturers have reduced output of regular consumer RAM for computers, laptops, and smartphones. Consequently, DDR5 prices have soared and are still rising.
Experts predict this situation will persist until at least 2027 or 2028, even if new factories are constructed. Consumers must either wait for market stabilization or accept higher prices. This is not a temporary split, but a structural market shift where AI demands outweigh those of mass consumers, pushing regular users into the background.
