- Lenovo has said that RAM prices will likely “never” fall back to pre-crisis levels
- The company also predicted a “new normal” for memory prices from 2030 onwards
- Microsoft expects the cost of memory to double in just over a year
If you were hoping we could make it to the weekend without more bad news on the RAM front, that hope is about to be dashed courtesy of Lenovo and Microsoft – and Apple is also partly to blame.
First, as the German technology website ComputerBase reports (via Wccftech), at ISC 2026 – the high-performance computing, AI and quantum conference in Germany – Lenovo said that RAM prices will probably “never” fall back to the pre-crisis levels of a year ago, even after the strengthening of chip production in the coming output (2028).
Lenovo apparently said “never”, accompanied by some onstage laughter, according to ComputerBase, and the tech site (with translation nuances in mind) clarifies that this is really referring to the next five years (or maybe a bit more) for the RAM industry and not an ‘absolute’ future.
But the report goes on to mention that Lenovo sees a “new normal” from 2030 onwards, with prices significantly higher than pre-crisis levels – even given increased production.
On top of that, Microsoft has just announced massive price increases for Xbox consoles driven by the RAM crisis. The firm stated: “Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling in the fall of 2027.”
Practice. Microsoft emphasized that the memory price increases are particularly painful for console manufacturers, as these units are typically sold at a (smaller) loss, as revenue is made up of game sales (and subscriptions).
Finally, Wccftech also discovered that Micron has fired something at Apple, although the memory chip maker didn’t name Tim Cook’s company specifically, but it’s clear enough where the shot was aimed. As Rolfe Winkler, who reports for the Wall Street Journal, explains in a post on X: “Tim Cook says the memory people are to blame for Apple raising prices. A Micron executive I interviewed last night pointed the finger back.”
Sumit Sadana, who is Micron’s chief business officer, informed Winkler: “We told a couple of the customers who were very aggressive with pricing at the time that this is not constructive.” The argument here could be that partners (presumably Apple) pushing Micron on the price of their RAM is hurting Micron’s bottom line and ability to invest in more manufacturing capacity.
Analysis: double, double wear and tear
While it’s hard to weigh the exact meaning of Lenovo’s comments about the RAM crisis at ISC, it’s clear enough that the PC giant thinks the future looks very rocky. At best, prices look set to be in trouble until the early 2030s, and a ‘new normal’ is likely to emerge here in the next decade.
While there seems to be some banter about prices “never” returning to pre-crisis levels, I think there’s a fair chance they actually won’t. When the price of a product increases to the extent that we have seen with RAM (and storage), it is possible that it will never fully normalize. Okay, so maybe we’ll see some curveballs that throw things out of whack – like the AI bubble bursting, or at least deflating a lot of air – but I’m increasingly doubtful about the prospect of any relief.
Microsoft predicts a further doubling of memory prices in not much more than a year is also a painful prediction to hear.
I’m not going to go all dark here though, because as I’ve said before, at least in the consumer space, RAM prices can only go so high before a ceiling is hit, meaning most people will simply refuse to pay the asking prices. And luckily, there have been a few glimmers of hope this week, too: Asus predicted that its products won’t be raised by as much in the second half of 2026 (but they will still rise), and there was a rumor that memory chip giant SK Hynix might shift production away from AI-targeted RAM (HBM) to at least conventional RAM.
However, I wouldn’t be swept away with any optimism just yet, because for now, as these latest developments in the memory crisis underscore, the overall mood around the future remains largely negative.
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