Computer memory prices rebound to 2007 levels amid supply shift to AI-focused high-bandwidth memory

A surge in RAM prices has erased over two decades of decline, driven by industry shifts towards high-bandwidth memory for AI applications, with little relief expected until at least 2027.

Computer memory prices have rebounded so sharply that, in the view of Daniel Lemire, they have erased more than 20 years of declines. The computer science professor at TELUQ, the Université du Québec, said on social media that RAM is now roughly as expensive per unit as it was in 2007, describing the move as an unusual event in the history of hardware pricing.

Lemire, who is also known for creating simdjson, argued that the change is not a normal market cycle but a structural break. His point is that memory costs had followed a long, near-exponential downward path for decades, yet only a few months of rising prices have reversed gains that took more than 20 years to accumulate.

The main driver is the redirection of DRAM production towards high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, which is used in advanced AI accelerators and in custom chips for cloud providers such as AWS, Google and Microsoft. Because HBM consumes manufacturing capacity that would otherwise be used for commodity DRAM, the pool of standard memory for consumer PCs has tightened. Reports from The Verge, CNBC, the BBC, TechRadar and Forbes all point to the same supply shift as the cause of the price spike.

The pressure is unlikely to ease quickly. According to the reports, new DRAM and NAND facilities are not expected to come onstream before 2027, and even then much of the output is likely to remain committed to HBM and data-centre customers rather than the retail PC market. For anyone building or upgrading a desktop, that means the period of cheap RAM may already be over for now, with little relief in sight unless the industry finds a way to reduce the memory demands of AI systems or expand production far more efficiently.