Initially reluctant to expand capacity in response to an AI-driven surge in demand, memory makers are ramping up spending.
If you haven’t bought a new phone or laptop recently, you’d better hope your current devices don’t give up on you in the next two years – or be prepared to spend more, settle for less, or both. As memory makers have pivoted towards high-margin AI memories, the prices of consumer-grade DRAM and NAND have surged, pushing up prices and/or eroding the specs of consumer electronics. Reprieve isn’t expected before 2028, when new capacity comes online.
The numbers associated with this memory supercycle are awe-inspiring. Market researcher Trendforce projects the memory market to be worth 551.6 billion dollars in 2026 and 842.7 billion dollars in 2027. It was about 150 billion dollars in 2022, when the market tipped into an oversupply period that only recently has come to an end.
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