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A tightening DRAM/SSD supply is projected to materially raise PC build costs and depress demand, with Gartner forecasting a 130% increase in combined DRAM and SSD prices by end of 2026 and an associated 17% rise in PC prices vs. 2025. Gartner expects this component inflation to drive a 10.4% decline in global PC shipments as buyers extend refresh cycles, and to make sub-$500 entry-level laptops economically unviable as memory’s share of bill-of-materials rises (projected from 16% to 23%), potentially eliminating the sub-$500 PC segment by 2028; higher-memory AI PCs are expected to be particularly impacted.
Separately, DataDome reported a large-scale web-scraping bot operation targeting e-commerce inventory pages to locate scarce DRAM for resale, submitting 10+ million requests and polling some sites roughly every 6.5 seconds. The activity was characterized by cache-busting query parameters to bypass cached responses and by request-rate tuning to avoid rate limits; DataDome also assessed that operators are increasingly using AI-assisted tooling to automate scraping tasks and potentially reverse-engineer anti-bot defenses, amplifying supply-chain pressure by enabling faster, more efficient scalping of constrained memory inventory.
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Gartner said rising memory costs will increase memory's share of a PC bill of materials from 16% to 23%, making sub-$500 laptops financially unviable. The firm projected the entry-level PC price tier could disappear by 2028 and that AI PC adoption milestones would be delayed to the same year.
Gartner forecast that combined DRAM and SSD prices will rise 130% by the end of 2026, increasing PC prices by 17% versus 2025. It also projected a 10.4% decline in global PC shipments in 2026 as buyers delay upgrades amid component inflation.
DataDome reported that threat actors are increasingly discussing and using AI to reverse-engineer anti-bot protections and automate scripting. The company said this is making inventory-scraping operations more effective during the memory supply crunch.
During the ongoing memory shortage, DataDome observed and blocked a large automated operation targeting e-commerce memory listings and related components. The campaign generated more than 10 million scraping requests, hit some DDR5 product pages about every 6.5 seconds, and used evasion methods such as cache busting and throttled request rates.
A broader DDR5 shortage began in November 2025, driven by demand from hyperscalers and AI companies. The constrained supply set the stage for expected DRAM price increases into early 2026 and downstream pressure on consumer hardware markets.
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Dell executives said the rapid buildout of **AI infrastructure** has created near-unlimited demand for memory, advanced semiconductors, and power, turning memory capacity into a major supply-chain constraint. They said the shortage reflects both years of underinvestment in fabrication capacity and the sudden acceleration of AI workloads, with system architecture changes and supply-chain adaptation now necessary to manage persistent bottlenecks. U.S. retail pricing data shows the pressure is already hitting downstream buyers, with **32GB DDR5 kits** reportedly disappearing quickly and lower-cost options largely vanishing as prices climb to around **$359.99**. The consumer market impact aligns with broader industry signals that AI data centers are absorbing large shares of global memory supply, while a separate report on Oracle and OpenAI's Abilene data center expansion concerns infrastructure financing and buildout decisions rather than the memory shortage itself.
Jun 29, 2026
A surge in **AI data center** demand is tightening global supply of critical memory components and reshaping hardware roadmaps. Reporting cited by *Security Online* says NVIDIA is prioritizing higher-margin AI accelerators over consumer GPUs amid constrained capacity and a shift of memory manufacturing toward **HBM** for AI, reducing availability of **GDDR** used in gaming graphics cards; this is described as a key factor behind a rumored delay of RTX 50-series “Super” refreshes. Separately, Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenue but warned that **memory chip shortages** are constraining near-term growth expectations, contributing to weaker guidance and a sharp after-hours stock drop; the company attributed the shortfall to OEMs (notably in China) adjusting inventories due to limited memory supply and rising prices. Other hardware supply and product-delivery signals point to broader constraints and downstream impacts. Tenstorrent disclosed that a firmware change (`v19.5.0`) will reduce available tensor/Tensix cores on **Blackhole p150** accelerator cards from 140 to 120 for both new shipments and existing customer units, potentially affecting software that depends on grid layout while the vendor claims only a ~1–2% typical performance impact. In parallel, analysis of Tesla’s robotics ambitions highlights **geopolitical and supply-chain concentration risk**—with critical materials and suppliers heavily located in China—underscoring how US–China trade dynamics and access to components/materials can become gating factors for scaling AI/robotics manufacturing.
Jul 12, 2026
An accelerating **AI infrastructure buildout** is creating second-order impacts across the tech sector, including tighter semiconductor supply, rising memory prices, and shifting capital allocation priorities. Apple signaled growing constraints in chip supply and sharply higher memory costs, reflecting broader market dynamics where foundry capacity and advanced packaging are increasingly pulled toward AI accelerators rather than consumer devices. Market data cited alongside Apple’s comments indicates a steep upswing in DRAM and NAND pricing as suppliers prioritize higher-margin server components and long-term AI/data-center commitments; TrendForce projections referenced in reporting point to standard DRAM contract prices rising **over 90% QoQ** in early 2026 and NAND up **over 30%**. Separately, commentary on Amazon’s strategy argues that large-scale **capex** commitments for AI infrastructure (reported as **$100B** for 2025) are coinciding with significant layoffs and internal pressure to increase AI tool usage, including unconfirmed claims of manager dashboards tracking employee AI-tool adoption for potential performance evaluation.
Jun 29, 2026