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According to the report, the cooldown is driven by consumer electronics manufacturers' unwillingness and inability to absorb higher memory costs after months of relentless price increases , rather than by improved supply. In other words, memory remains in short supply, but consumers are no longer willing to keep paying ever-higher prices.
AI continues to be the market's driving force. Demand for AI inference systems and hyperscale data centers remains strong enough to keep both DRAM and NAND supply constrained, while memory manufacturers continue shifting production capacity toward higher-margin server products . This leaves less capacity available for consumer memory, preventing prices from falling even as demand from PCs and smartphones weakens.
As a result, the memory market is increasingly split between enterprise and consumer customers. On the server side, TrendForce expects demand to remain healthy through 2027 as improving CPU availability supports continued deployments of AI servers built around x86 processors and registered DIMMs (RDIMMs). Although server DRAM is expected to remain undersupplied during the third quarter, price increases should moderate because a portion of purchases is covered by long-term supply agreements.
Consumer markets appear to paint a very different picture. Notebook manufacturers are expected to keep replenishing inventories, but higher memory costs are gradually feeding through into retail pricing , a trend TrendForce believes could weigh on PC shipments for the rest of the year. Smartphone vendors face similar pressure, with many expected to raise handset prices to offset persistently high LPDRAM (low-power DRAM) costs while simultaneously becoming more cautious with production plans as consumer demand softens.
Samsung and SK hynix warn AI-driven memory shortages could last until 2027 and beyond, as HBM demand explodes
The rise of local agentic computing faces a brutal reality: rising DRAM prices
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/pc-components/ram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-price-surge-begins-to-cool-as-consumers-hit-affordability-limit-ai-demand-still-keeps-dram-and-nand-prices-climbing-through-q3-2026#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.