MANILA, Philippines – A global shortage of memory chips, propelled by surging demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, is expected to push up the average selling prices of personal computers and smartphones in 2026, said research firm IDC.

The memory market — which includes DRAM and NAND flash used in everyday devices — is facing an imbalance as production capacity shifts toward AI-oriented components.

DRAM is fast-access memory that computers use to run programs and applications. NAND flash is storage memory for saving photos, documents, and all other files. The production for both types is expected to be affected by the growing demand of AI data centers.

The IDC explained: “Instead of expanding conventional DRAM and NAND used in smartphones, PCs, and other consumer electronics, major memory makers have shifted production toward memory used in AI data centers, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-capacity DDR5. This has restricted the supply of general-purpose memory modules and driven up prices across the board.”  

Memory manufacturing capacity is being reallocated.

Instead of allocating supply of conventional memory used in consumer devices, manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — the world’s three biggest memory makers — have shifted production toward memory modules that serve AI servers and hyperscaler data center infrastructure.

“This is a zero-sum game: every wafer allocated to an HBM stack for an Nvidia GPU is a wafer denied to the LPDDR5X (DRAM) module of a mid-range smartphone or the SSD (NAND) of a consumer laptop,” the IDC said.  

This shift has tightened the availability of DRAM and NAND for smartphones and PCs, driving up component prices.

For smartphones, memory often constitutes a significant portion of the bill of materials, especially in mid-range devices. As memory costs rise, smartphone makers may have little choice but to increase prices, cut memory specifications, or both. The IDC’s downside scenarios suggest average smartphone selling prices could rise 3-5% in a moderate case or up to 6-8% in a “pessimistic scenario.”

In the PC market, the memory shortage converges with the transition to AI-enhanced PC systems and the end of legacy software support cycles, specifically Windows 10. Major vendors have signaled broad price increases, and under the IDC’s scenarios, average selling prices for PCs could also climb 4–8% in 2026.

“The severity and duration of the shortage will be determined by how quickly production capacity can expand and how effectively demand rebalances across segments,” the IDC said. – Rappler.com