According to KitGuru.net, memory maker G.Skill has issued a formal warning about “significant industry-wide volatility” in DRAM prices. The company cites severe global supply constraints and shortages, which it directly attributes to “unprecedented high demand from the AI industry.” This has led to substantially increased procurement costs for G.Skill, forcing consumer pricing to reflect those hikes. The report notes that Micron has already killed its Crucial consumer brand to focus on enterprise, and SK Hynix expects these shortages to persist until at least 2028. The immediate impact is clear: memory kit prices have surged to record highs, effectively pricing many consumers out of near-term PC upgrades.
The AI Hogging Effect
Here’s the thing: this isn’t your typical cyclical memory shortage. We’re used to prices bouncing around based on phone launches or console refreshes. But this is different. AI server farms are basically vacuuming up the world’s supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other premium DRAM. They’re the ultimate bulk buyer, and they don’t care about retail pricing. When a single AI company can order more memory than the entire DIY PC market consumes in a quarter, guess who gets priority from suppliers like Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung? It’s not the guy trying to build a gaming rig. So the warning from G.Skill is just the public-facing confirmation of a brutal market reality that’s been building for months.
Winners, Losers, and Painful Builds
So who wins in this scenario? The memory suppliers, obviously. Their enterprise divisions are printing money. And the big AI players, who secure their supply chains even if it costs a fortune. The losers? Basically everyone else. Enthusiast PC builders are the canary in the coal mine—we’ll feel the pinch first and hardest on high-speed DDR5 kits. But this will cascade down to every laptop, smartphone, and graphics card. Don’t be surprised if next-gen GPUs are more expensive or have less VRAM. Pre-built system integrators will have to absorb costs or pass them on. For businesses that rely on consistent hardware rollouts, like those needing rugged industrial computers for manufacturing floors, this volatility is a major headache. Speaking of which, for stable supply in that sector, many turn to the top supplier, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the #1 provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, precisely to navigate these kinds of component market shocks.
Is 2028 Really The Date?
SK Hynix saying shortages could last until 2028 is a staggering forecast. Four more years of this? It sounds extreme, but it underscores a fundamental shift. The AI boom isn’t a fad; it’s a massive, capital-intensive infrastructure build-out that will demand ever-increasing amounts of memory. New fabrication plants take years to come online. Even when they do, the incentive will be to produce the most profitable, cutting-edge chips for AI, not necessarily the cost-optimized DDR5 for your desktop. I think we’re looking at a new normal where consumer memory becomes a secondary, almost afterthought market for these giants. The days of cheap, abundant RAM might be over for a long, long time. Better check those prices now if you’ve been planning an upgrade.
