Big laptop price hikes are coming, and memory shortages are the root cause.
The surge in artificial intelligence (AI) activity has become impossible to ignore, even for people who rarely, if ever, use AI in their daily routines. A prime illustration is the personal-computer sector—especially laptops and smartphones.
We’re currently facing a global memory shortage, driven largely by a rapid rise in AI-focused data centers and their enormous appetite for key components. This has created a sustained scarcity of essential hardware like dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), Samsung DDR5 RAM, and solid-state drives (SSDs). Because of this shortage, analysts expect smartphone prices to climb by about 6.9% in 2026, according to CNBC’s coverage of the memory crunch.
Industry buzz suggests prices for memory are already moving upward. Samsung, for instance, is reported to have doubled the contract price for DDR5 memory. At the same time, Framework—known for repair-friendly, enthusiast-oriented laptops—has also doubled prices on those very memory parts. As memory suppliers raise costs, device makers are likely to pass these increases on to consumers.
The trend isn’t limited to a single brand. HP has warned that PC prices will rise next year due to scarce memory, per PCMag. Lenovo and Dell have issued similar cautions about impending price hikes tied to soaring memory costs. In fact, RAM shortages have led some analysts to predict that 2026 laptops will skew toward lower-capacity, 8GB configurations out of necessity, a shift that ultimately reduces value for buyers.
And there’s no clear end in sight. Even with concerns about an AI market bubble, AI development shows no obvious slowdown, and the demand for data-center capacity may persist far into the future.
Bottom line: if you’re in the market for a new laptop, PC, or even upgrade parts, it’s wise to shop sooner rather than later. The DDR5 RAM you want could become significantly more expensive in a matter of months.
