Memory prices have erased 20 years of progress in a single year, researcher says

The takeaway: Memory prices have been trending upward for more than a year, with many analysts predicting further increases in the near future. A prominent GitHub developer has now published a series of graphs and charts showing just how quickly prices have surged to 2007 levels on a per-unit basis, effectively undoing two decades of progress in making PC hardware more affordable for consumers. According to computer science researcher and software performance expert Daniel Lemire, skyrocketing memory prices are a "historical anomaly," with the unprecedented increases effectively erasing decades of steady, exponential cost reductions. He believes that for prices to normalize, either software developers will have to find ways to build AI systems that require less memory, or the hardware industry will need to increase production capacity. Driven largely by rising demand from the AI sector, global memory prices have surged dramatically over the last two years, with a recent J.P. Morgan report estimating an increase of more than 400% since the start of 2024. Unfortunately for consumers, the surge isn't limited to DRAM chips, as an acute manufacturing shortage in flash memory has also pushed up prices for SSDs, flash drives, memory cards, and external storage. - Daniel Lemire (@lemire) August 5, 2026 According to industry reports, contract and retail prices for NAND flash have risen between 50% and 100% since the start of the crisis, triggering price increases across a broad spectrum of consumer electronics, including laptops, desktops, graphics cards, smartphones, and video game consoles. While brands such as HP, Dell, and Apple have raised prices for their laptops and MacBooks, Sony and Nintendo have also raised prices for the PS5 and Switch 2, respectively. Ominously for consumers, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix has predicted that the global memory crisis is far from over. According to CEO Kwak Noh-Jung, 2027 will be the worst year ever for the industry, with demand continuing to outstrip supply even beyond 2030. However, whether these predictions materialize will depend in part on the health of the AI industry, amid growing fears that speculative investment in the sector is creating a bubble that could burst at any time.