According to Counterpoint, routers could be affected the most, as the OEMs of these devices don't tend to have the kind of negotiation power and long-term supply contracts as the bigger industry players. DDR4 was already being phased out before the crisis hit, and supply constraints forced a surge in prices . The fact that the AI craze led to the addition of memory-hogging features in routers and STBs didn't help matters, as some equipment has as much RAM as a common PC.
The market researchers also note that this problem may even affect ISP fiber rollouts. It's not hard to imagine that the combined price of the equipment becomes a significant factor, especially when the time comes to pass the costs on to consumers, who may balk at paying for equipment that was often "free" for many years.
Even big telecom and phone gear manufacturers have started specifically calling out the problem in their quarterly earnings statements. In the statement for its Q4 2025 results, Nokia's CEO said that although "at a macro level across the company, [RAM pricing] is not a huge part", the firm intends to "secure the supply based on the commitments [it does have]" and that "[it expects ] to be passed through to pricing ".
Meanwhile, MediaTek reportedly stated that it's got enough memory for its datacenter needs, but that for other segments it will "adjust its pricing to reflect the rising supply chain costs and allocate our supply across products based on the overall profitability". Likewise, Qualcomm's CEO said that, with data centers as priority #1, "industry-wide memory shortage and price increases are likely to define the overall scale of the handset industry through the fiscal year."
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/routers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/routers/isp-provided-routers-gateways-and-set-top-boxes-face-price-increases-due-to-7x-uplift-in-memory-costs-home-fiber-rollouts-may-slow-and-installations-could-become-more-expensive#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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