Scientist says RAM pricing has reverted to normalized 2007 levels — memory prices have been falling exponentially for decades, but the AI shortage undid 20 years of progress in a matter of months

(Image credit: Micron)

Software performance expert, scientist, and GitHub developer Daniel Lemire compared historical computer memory prices and showed that decades of falling prices were undone in just a matter of months because of the massive demand for HBM. According to his X post, this event is a historical anomaly, and he cannot think of an instance where technology hardware prices reverted to levels from decades before.On a historical basis, computer memory has been falling at an exponential rate for decades. But we just undid about 20 years of progress. RAM on a per unit basis is about as expensive as it was in 2007.To my knowledge, it is an historical anomaly. I cannot recall a similar… pic.twitter.com/UH6LgZ1fc4August 5, 2026“RAM on a per unit basis is about as expensive as it was in 2007,” Lemire said. He also added, “I do not think anyone can predict what will happen, but I am guessing that we either find a way to build AI systems without so much memory, or we find really clever ways to make much more memory much faster.”We also checked third-party data compiled and maintained by David Shim for the Stanford DAM Project. The latest price for DDR5 memory sits between $13.28 and $11.41 per GB — the last time RAM hit this price was in 2008, when the price for DDR2 hovered by $15 and 11.00 per GB. These are based on nominal USD values, though. If we take 2024 inflation into account, the current amount for DD5 is between $12.74 and $10.94 per GB, which was last achieved in 2011, when DDR3 prices were at $11.85 per GB.