According to market experts, memory costs are increasing sharply due to the huge demand from AI data centers. When supply is limited, technology companies are forced to shift part of component costs to consumers.
Mr. Francisco Jeronimo - Vice President in charge of customer equipment of International Data Corporation (IDC) - a US market research and analysis company in the computer field - said that memory prices in some cases have increased by 200 - 300% in recent months. Meanwhile, the hardware profit margin of manufacturers, especially in the mid-range and low-price segments, is already quite low.
Therefore, they are forced to transfer part of this higher component cost to consumers," Mr. Jeronimo said.
AI "swallows" memory chip supply
The main reason for this situation is the rapid development of AI. Companies such as OpenAI, Meta or Google are building giant data centers to serve AI model training and operation.
These systems require extremely high-performance memory. For example, Nvidia's Rubin GPU can use up to 288GB of HBM4 memory, dozens of times more than a regular smartphone, which only has 8 - 16GB of RAM.
Meanwhile, the global RAM market mainly depends on three manufacturers: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology. These three companies control about 93% of the market share, making supply even more scarce when AI companies sign long-term purchase contracts at high prices.
A series of phone companies increase prices
Cost pressure has begun to reflect in the price of new products. Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S26 line is sold at a significantly higher price than the previous generation. Many mid-range models of the company have also been price adjusted.
Technology company Nothing (headquartered in London, England) also increased the price of the new Phone 4a line, while Motorola raised the price of the Edge 70 model compared to its predecessor.
Even Apple, which is famous for controlling costs well, has also increased the prices of some new products such as iPhone 17e or MacBook Air chip M5.
According to IDC, large companies like Apple or Samsung still have an advantage thanks to the high-end segment with large profit margins. However, small brands or those focused on cheap phones will be more heavily affected.
Cheap phones may disappear
Experts believe that the under 200 USD segment is most likely to be affected. With high memory costs, many manufacturers find it difficult to maintain low prices as before.
Some devices that used to cost about 100 USD can increase to 150 - 200 USD, and even many companies may temporarily stop producing cheap phones.
The irony is that while manufacturers are strongly promoting "AI phones", AI features on devices require larger RAM capacity. If RAM supply continues to be scarce, manufacturers may have to return to using 8GB RAM configuration, which is considered quite low by 2026.
RAM shortage can be prolonged
Analysts predict that the memory crisis could last until 2027. The reason is that expanding memory chip production capacity takes at least 2-3 years, while demand from AI data centers is still increasing rapidly.
IDC predicts that the global smartphone market may fall by 13% in 2026 due to rising device prices, while the personal computer market may also fall by about 11%.
