The spot market price of 8-gigabit DDR4 memory rose 1,568% in 2025 to $22.85. The price thus increased approximately 17-fold from the $1.62 level recorded at the end of 2023, marking its strongest annual rise on record.
The increase in DDR4 prices continued in 2026. Prices reached $27.75 in the first quarter and climbed to $31.59 in the second quarter following a 13.84% increase. The streak of increases thus extended into its sixth consecutive quarter.
Excess supply turned into a supply crunch
Demand for conventional memory used in personal computers and smartphones remained weak toward the end of 2024. High inventories and excess supply put pressure on prices, while Chinese manufacturers’ expansion of legacy memory capacity intensified competition.
In 2025, however, uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariff policies changed the market’s direction. Customers brought forward orders to build up inventories ahead of new tariffs, while expectations of potential supply shortages increased demand and stockpiling.
As a result, the balance in the memory market shifted from excess supply to a supply crunch within a few quarters. Capacity was also allocated to higher-value products amid demand from artificial intelligence, reducing the supply of older-generation DDR4 memory.
AI demand spreads to server memory
The increase in artificial intelligence investment boosted demand not only for high-bandwidth memory, known as HBM, but also for high-capacity server DRAM and enterprise data-storage products as data-center investment expanded.
This increase in demand for server memory accelerated the shift of production capacity toward higher-return products. The resulting tightening across the shared supply chain also affected smartphone, personal computer and game-console manufacturers.
Technology manufacturers change pricing and supply policies
Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s leading memory manufacturers, benefited from rising DRAM prices but also faced higher costs because it uses the same products as inputs in smartphone production. Samsung CEO TM Roh described the supply crunch in memory chips as unprecedented and said passing cost increases on to product prices could be unavoidable.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also said in June that rising costs for memory and storage chips had become unsustainable for the company, announcing that some products would need price increases.
Lenovo, one of the world’s largest personal computer manufacturers, raised its prices in response to rising DRAM and storage-memory costs. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said the company had anticipated the tightening in memory supply and that access to different suppliers in China, South Korea and the United States provided an advantage.
At Xiaomi, which has a strong position in the low-price segment, cost pressures were felt more acutely. Xiaomi President Lu Weibing said pressure from memory costs would intensify in 2026 and that price increases alone might not fully offset rising costs.
HP raised computer prices and changed its sourcing and product configurations because of increasing DRAM and NAND flash-memory costs. Sony sought to secure the memory supply it needed for the PlayStation 5. Raspberry Pi also raised prices for some models because of higher costs for fourth-generation low-power double-data-rate memory.
Manufacturers’ profit margins come under pressure
Asia markets analyst Sadi Kaymaz said the sharp increase in memory prices was among the biggest challenges facing the artificial intelligence and electronics industries. Kaymaz said planned spending on data-center investments was increasing each quarter, adding that rising component costs, particularly for memory, were one of the main factors driving up capital expenditures.
Kaymaz said high memory prices were being felt across numerous sectors and that the smartphone market also contracted in 2026. He said sales of lower-end devices were particularly affected, adding that manufacturers had slowed production or changed their product mix because of shrinking profit margins.
Kaymaz also said shipments by Chinese manufacturers such as Oppo and Xiaomi had declined, while Samsung increased its market share by achieving limited growth in a shrinking market. Samsung’s ability to produce its own chips, along with its higher average selling price and profit margin, were cited as factors supporting the company’s resilience.
