RAM Up 110%, SSDs Up 147%: AI Data Centers Are Eating Your Laptop's Memory Budget

# RAM Up 110%, SSDs Up 147%: AI Data Centers Are Eating Your Laptop's Memory Budget

> **Quick answer:** RAM prices are up 110% and SSD prices up 147% since Q1 2025 because AI data centers now consume 70% of all memory chips made worldwide. Gartner forecasts another 130% combined surge by end of 2026, a crisis they're calling "memflation." A Samsung strike beginning May 21 and a US threat of 100% import tariffs on memory chips are poised to make it worse. Sub-$500 laptops are vanishing. PC shipments are set for their sharpest annual decline in over a decade.

RAM prices up 110 percent. SSDs up 147 percent. Those are not typos — and Gartner says the worst is still ahead for 2026. The memory chip shortage hitting consumer PCs and laptops right now is being driven by one structural force: AI data centers have claimed the global memory supply chain as their own, and your next laptop is paying the price.

## "Memflation": What Gartner's New Term Tells You About This Crisis

Gartner, the research firm that has tracked technology markets for decades, did not reach for routine vocabulary when describing the 2026 memory situation. They coined a new word: **"memflation."**

In their February 2026 research note, Gartner forecast 80% DRAM price inflation and 202% NAND flash inflation for 2026 — figures so severe the firm predicted they would trigger worldwide PC shipments to fall 10.4% and smartphone shipments to drop 8.4% compared to 2025 levels. Combined across DRAM and SSD categories, Gartner put the aggregate price surge at **130% by end of 2026**.