DRAM prices have increased 170% due to AI demand

winjer said:
I think it speaks volumes to the profit margins DRAM is making now, due to Ai demand.
That a company like Samsung is willing to sacrifice other divisions, to make more profits on this one product.
Ai is like a plague that consumes everything in it's path.
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And all the money is imaginary. AI isn't selling like iPhones. It's just that nVidia invest in OpenAI, with the condition that they use that invest to buy them chips to have a great computational power so they can sell nothing. All boosted with the investor's money of the inflated share price. Sony and Microsoft must have numbers on when someone is going to notice this, and so they put next generation into late 2027.
 
StereoVsn said:
Sure, short term DRAM prices are bringing in the cash but potentially damaging their mobile market share for the short term gains is not very smart.
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I'm sure Samsung will also not sell to other phone companies, unless they pay as much as AI companies.
And I bet the other DRAM makers will also do the same.
 
The more people talk and panic about this stuff, the more companies will find execuses to raise prices even more than necessary.
The only answer is not to buy stuff at outrageous prices. It's not like companies can forget about consumer electronics and the fact their end users will always be humans.
 
winjer said:

Samsung Has Reportedly Rejected A DRAM Supply Request From Its Own Mobile Experience Division As It's Focused On Maximizing Profitability




FFS, Samsung is now refusing to sell DRAM to it's other divisions, to make more profits by selling for AI.
I bet phone prices are going to take a huge jump in 2026.

Mr Bean Wtf GIF
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This could maybe be due to competition laws. Samsung cannot give itself a favorable rate vs other potential customers. So it's going to be a trade off of DRAM profits vs the phone market.
 
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Zathalus said:
This could maybe be due to competition laws. Samsung cannot give itself a favorable rate vs other potential customers. So it's going to be a trade off of DRAM profits vs the phone market.
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They sold it before, to other company branches. There was no law stopping it.
 
winjer said:
I'm sure Samsung will also not sell to other phone companies, unless they pay as much as AI companies.
And I bet the other DRAM makers will also do the same.
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I wonder if Chinese phone manufacturers will have access to their domestic stuff that is getting close enough to use. Kind of like Huawei is using local SoC supply despite scaling issues.

And outside US (and really here as well to an extent with Motorola, OnePlus, TCL, etc), Chinese phones sell very well.
 
StereoVsn said:
I wonder if Chinese phone manufacturers will have access to their domestic stuff that is getting close enough to use. Kind of like Huawei is using local SoC supply despite scaling issues.

And outside US (and really here as well to an extent with Motorola, OnePlus, TCL, etc), Chinese phones sell very well.
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China is also ramping up AI server buildup.
Just this week we got news that they are now building servers outside of China, to bypass the ban of sale of Nvidia AI chips.
 
winjer said:
They sold it before, to other company branches. There was no law stopping it.
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Yeah, but the transfer price cannot vastly undercut what they sell to clients. It's not an exact science or price range, but they cannot sell RAM to themselves and then charge an arbitrarily extreme price to other clients.
 
Radical_3d said:
And all the money is imaginary. AI isn't selling like iPhones. It's just that nVidia invest in OpenAI, with the condition that they use that invest to buy them chips to have a great computational power so they can sell nothing. All boosted with the investor's money of the inflated share price. Sony and Microsoft must have numbers on when someone is going to notice this, and so they put next generation into late 2027.
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Not all AI money is imaginary. The "hardware" money is far from imaginary.
And that's the biggest irony of the whole AI.
The only people that actually earn real money NOW from this are the ones that sell hardware.
 
Radical_3d said:
And all the money is imaginary. AI isn't selling like iPhones. It's just that nVidia invest in OpenAI, with the condition that they use that invest to buy them chips to have a great computational power so they can sell nothing. All boosted with the investor's money of the inflated share price. Sony and Microsoft must have numbers on when someone is going to notice this, and so they put next generation into late 2027.
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'sell nothing' is an interesting way to describe OpenAI possibly reaching a $20b ARR by the end of this year, from a product that they only introduced 3 years ago.

They're not making profit yet. They're selling plenty of product, though. Their revenues are sky rocketing.
 
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Radical_3d said:
And all the money is imaginary. AI isn't selling like iPhones. It's just that nVidia invest in OpenAI, with the condition that they use that invest to buy them chips to have a great computational power so they can sell nothing. All boosted with the investor's money of the inflated share price. Sony and Microsoft must have numbers on when someone is going to notice this, and so they put next generation into late 2027.
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It's financially unsound, possibly, but I do believe it will pay off… otherwise there's no way these companies will ever pay off that credit.
 
negator2vc said:
Not all AI money is imaginary. The "hardware" money is far from imaginary.
And that's the biggest irony of the whole AI.
The only people that actually earn real money NOW from this are the ones that sell hardware.
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Unless that AI hardware isn't paid with hard cash but with shares in other companies.
 
Montauk said:
Yes, famously Nvidia isn't making truly insane amounts of hard cash every quarter.
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Nvidia is basically making so much money that they are going throwing it left and right.

Hence OpenaI, Oracle, Coreweave, and other investments. Shovel maker making cash during the gold rush.
 
negator2vc said:
Not all AI money is imaginary. The "hardware" money is far from imaginary.
And that's the biggest irony of the whole AI.
The only people that actually earn real money NOW from this are the ones that sell hardware.
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Yes, nVidia is very happy to be selling chips like hot cupcakes.
 
GPU prices gonna be cooked soon.
Suddenly all high end GPUs are sold out here. Gigabyte is the only one who has 5090 stock in a couple of shops here. Everything else is sold out for the most part. Few Asus Astral 5090 for 3k+...
 
cHinzo said:
Gonna be a sad future for us regular consumers while companies are trying to maximize their profits.
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Don't worry. Cloud providers will be happy to provide you with compute services so you don't have to worry about component price fluctuations ;)
 
Montauk said:
Can you tell the class all about the limitations?

There are some AI researchers on X that I'd like to share your findings with.
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You know what I love? Doing an extremely simple search query on Google (who is supposed to be a leader in AI) and having their AI feed me a confident-sounding result that is factually incorrect in every regard. Happens over and over again, and it hasn't improved in the slightest over the past year. Oh, they added links to sources so you can double check...except the AI has also provided me with sources that are totally made-up as well.

If AI is to solve all our problems and do all these amazing things that they promise, surely the easiest thing they could do is provide reliable answers to search queries. And if they can't, how will they ever be trustworthy to do any task of importance?

Let's look at it another way-- AI is like hiring an intern. It's unreliable labor that needs to be supervised on a constant basis, because you can never trust that it's going to do the task properly. There's a reason corporations don't pack their workforce with interns.
 

Memory Drought 2025: TEAMGROUP Halts RAM Quotes — Dramatic Price Hikes Ahead


The memory market may be entering a long-term shortage phase, as major DRAM module vendor TEAMGROUP announced it has stopped issuing price quotes for RAM kits — a move interpreted as a signal that supply will tighten further and prices will rise. The suspension of quotes, mirrored by module maker ADATA, suggests that vendors anticipate mounting demand and shrinking supply, particularly as memory manufacturers re-allocate production capacity toward server-grade and AI-oriented DRAM. Industry sources confirm that DRAM chipmakers are prioritizing high-bandwidth memory and enterprise server modules demanded by AI infrastructure and data centers. That shift is reducing the amount of DRAM wafer capacity available for consumer-oriented DDR4 and DDR5 modules.

Contract data from Q3 2025 already indicate dramatic increases: DRAM prices are reportedly up 171.8 % year-over-year, marking one of the steepest rises among tech commodities. Memory-chip price hikes of up to 60 % have been observed, and analysts track quarter-on-quarter increases of 8–13 % for conventional DRAM, with potentially larger gains for HBM-inclusive products. Delays of new RAM module launches and price hikes for SSD- or memory-equipped systems — such as mini-PCs — confirm the stress is extending down the supply chain.

For PC builders and enthusiasts, especially those anticipating upgrades around next-gen platforms, the implications are significant. Memory costs are rising fast and availability is becoming unpredictable. Waiting for releases or cheaper RAM kits might not pay off, because supply allocations increasingly favor enterprise and AI workloads — likely keeping DDR4/DDR5 prices elevated well into 2026, perhaps even 2027. For any planned builds, especially high-core-count or multi-GPU systems, budgeting more conservatively and considering early acquisition of memory kits may be prudent.
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StereoVsn said:
TLDR - everyone is f-d. That includes phone manufacturers, systems integrators, pre-build computer and laptops manufacturers, GPU AIBs and so on.

And the smaller the company is the harder they will get hit. Apple, Dell and Asus have a lot more pull vs smaller vendors.
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And mind you, this is the Xmas time. Lot of people were considering buying a new PC and now can't because of this AI boom.
And soon, it will be for every other device. We are really screwed.
 
winjer said:
And mind you, this is the Xmas time. Lot of people were considering buying a new PC and now can't because of this AI boom.
And soon, it will be for every other device. We are really screwed.
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Yeah, if you need a PC , buy a pre-built or laptop now! This is going to be a complete shit show very soon.
 

AMD reportedly raising Radeon 8 GB / 16 GB graphics card prices by $20–$40


AMD has officially announced a price increase for its graphics cards, with a significant increase expected this year.

It is reported that several AMD graphics card brands have officially notified their channels to prepare inventory. The first wave of price increases will be $20 for 8GB and $40 for 16GB, with an estimated overall increase of around 300 RMB for 8GB and 600 RMB for 16GB by the end of the year. No new products will be launched throughout 2027.

— Board Channels (translation)
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The continuous rise in memory prices has led to a sharp increase in graphics card costs. Industry sources indicate that AMD, the second-largest graphics card manufacturer, has notified its partners of a second price increase across its entire product line. The increase is estimated to be at least 10%.

— UDN (translation)
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Sheet GIF
 
MayauMiao said:
Just play the old backlogs instead of chasing the latest graphic cards. The RAM price will eventually crash at some point.
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That's the problem with the current price increase. The only way for the RAM prices to crash is for the AI bubble to burst and considering the money they throw at it it doesn't look like it will burst any time soon (5-10 years if I had to guess). And as long the companies have someone to sell the RAM normal users will only get the left overs and the prices will stay high or even higher :messenger_crying:

As the Starks have always said ... Winter is coming!
 
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MayauMiao said:
Just play the old backlogs instead of chasing the latest graphic cards. The RAM price will eventually crash at some point.
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Around 2030 from the looks of it, assuming AI demand doesn't increase exponentionally. Which I honestly fully see happening. Just wait until we're at AI assistents like, say, in the movie Her. And this IS coming, do not be fooled.
 
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negator2vc said:
That's the problem with the current price increase. The only way for the RAM prices to crash is for the AI bubble to burst and considering the money they throw at it it doesn't look like it will burst any time soon (5-10 years if I had to guess).
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Might be sooner than expected:

The FT reported that 'UK pension funds dump US equities on fears of AI bubble'
 
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winjer said:
China is also ramping up AI server buildup.
Just this week we got news that they are now building servers outside of China, to bypass the ban of sale of Nvidia AI chips.
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I am now envisioning China leasing land from Mongolia and building massive datacenters with solar farms on the other side of The Great Wall.
 
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