For tech enthusiasts and especially PC builders, life has been tough recently. RAM prices have skyrocketed, and it’s difficult for even companies to obtain RAM. It seems unlikely prices will go down anytime soon based on recent reports. However, this has led many to wonder exactly why this happened.

RAM (random access memory) is a vital component of every computer. Unlike normal hard drive storage, RAM is incredibly fast and is what a device uses to store non-permanent data, like webpages on the internet. The naming convention of RAM is in the form of [generation- speed – capacity].

“AI companies have decided that they need so much RAM that they are buying up the entire supply around the world so that they can power these future AI networks that they believe might be the future of all computing. One development over at a place like OpenAI might use 20%, 25% of the world’s whole supply of the wafers that this RAM comes on,” an article from NPR.com said.

The effects of this have been widely felt by many already and are hard to understate. 

“What that has done in the market is it has meant that anything that uses memory chips, the price of those memory chips, they have to pay three, four, even six times as much to get them. And so that’s going to raise the price of everything else,” an article from NPR.com said.

The actual numbers are even more staggering than just hearing the increase, though; the cost of RAM has priced out many who want to build PCs.

According to pcpartpicker.com, from January 2025 to now, the average price of DDR5-5600-2×16 GB RAM has gone up from $200 in January 2025 to $900. DDR5-6000-2×32 GB even went from $200 all the way up to $1000. Similar trends follow in other configurations as well, with even the price of many DDR4 configurations tripling or quadrupling from the $50 range to the $175 range.

In addition to that, many other devices are facing stock issues due to the shortage of RAM, such as some game consoles.

“Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages,” an article from Valve.com said.

These recent developments have led many to wonder if and when things will go back to normal. However, the outlook for the future of ram prices is quite grim.

“If you’re looking to buy a well-priced PC or tablet in 2026, the ‘wait and see’ approach isn’t going to work, as the IDC just put out a damning forecast that prices will continue to skyrocket — only beginning to level out in 2028,” an article from TomsGuide.com said.