Expect more of those DRAM price hikes as memory shortage continues to bite

Storage

Chip costs may rise another 63% this quarter, as effects feed through to PC pricing

The continuing AI memory crunch saw DRAM prices effectively double in calendar Q1, and the bad news is they are likely to rise again by more than 50 percent in the current quarter, if TrendForce forecasters are on the money.The Taiwan-based market watcher says contract prices for conventional DRAM went up by up to 98 percent during Q1. This was good for the memory chipmakers - which have seen their industry revenue spike 81 percent to $97 billion in the same period - but not so good for buyers.The situation is not set to improve anytime soon, TrendForce says, as inventory levels held by DRAM suppliers remain extremely low, and any incremental supply is prioritized for high-capacity RDIMMs for AI servers.

This continues to limit product availability for PC and smartphone vendors, with the result that bit shipment growth for conventional DRAM is expected to remain constrained. TrendForce expects contract prices for these everyday memory components to rise by another 58 to 63 percent this quarter.

Hyperscale customers have shown a greater willingness to accept price increases, the market research firm claims, which has forced other customers to follow suit to secure supply allocations.The end customer has been the loser in all of this, with the average price of laptop and desktop PCs up by double-digit percentages in Europe, as The Register reported this week.