Buy servers now or cry later: DRAM price spike threatens infrastructure budgets
- Reference: 1768388406
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/14/dram_infrastructure_costs/
- Source link:
RAM prices have surged dramatically in recent months, with manufacturers including Kingston, Micron, and Samsung raising prices by an average of 63 percent between September and December 2025 for the most common capacities – 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB modules sold in Europe, according to distribution market data compiled by analyst Context.
Server prices set to jump 15% as memory costs spike [1]READ MORE
The price shock at the component level has begun working its way through the tech supply chain, though with varying degrees of impact at different stages.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including HPE, Lenovo, Dell, and Cisco have seen more moderate increases of around 28 percent for enterprise RAM during the same period, Context enterprise analyst Gurvan Meyer told The Register , benefiting from existing component inventories and supply contracts that have temporarily cushioned the blow.
Distribution sell-through data shows the impact on complete infrastructure systems has remained relatively modest to date, with server system pricing edging up only 5-10 percent in December, as we reported at the time.
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Meyer attributed this lag to OEM vendors working through component stocks purchased at earlier, lower prices.
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However, this buffer period is coming to an end. As system vendors exhaust their inventories and are forced to purchase components at current inflated prices, Context expects infrastructure system costs to rise more substantially within the next three months.
[5]Mem-ageddon: AI chip frenzy to wallop DRAM prices with 70% hike
[6]PC shipments set to hit the buffers as AI guzzles memory
[7]No fire sale for firewalls as memory shortages could push prices higher
[8]The world is one bad decision away from a silicon ice age
The pricing pressure extends beyond memory chips. Storage components have also seen significant cost inflation, with price-per-gigabyte leaps of 30-40 percent for both SSDs and HDDs since September. This dual impact on both memory and storage components is expected to compound the effect on overall infrastructure system pricing.
The spike in component costs comes at a challenging time for enterprises already grappling with IT budget pressures and ongoing digital transformation initiatives. Organizations planning infrastructure refreshes or expansions may need to reassess budgets and timelines. No doubt some may consider accelerating purchases to lock in current pricing before further increases take effect.
The memory price inflation also raises questions about potential impacts on cloud service providers, which operate sprawling datacenter infrastructures and could face cost pressures they may pass on to enterprise customers through adjusted service pricing. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/04/server_prices_15_percent_jump_memory_costs/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aWlxnwikQXIQDYnSZ2DnzAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aWlxnwikQXIQDYnSZ2DnzAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aWlxnwikQXIQDYnSZ2DnzAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/06/memory_firm_profits_up_as/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/memory_shortages_price_hikes/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/no_fire_sale_on_firewalls/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/silicon_shield_versus_silicon_winter/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
HARD Drive Prices Increasing?!
Is there any (alleged) justification for that?
For DRAM prices, the putative reason is demand for, and manufacturing shift to, HBM for AI hosts.
Re: HARD Drive Prices Increasing?!
AI Servers need fast storage.
Re: HARD Drive Prices Increasing?!
@An_Old_Dog
I'm wondering about that too. My initial thought is it's to offset the forced SSD price increase (ie. mitigate the loss of margin or profit in solid state stuff by increasing the margin on spinny stuff).
Someone here has inside knowledge of the "Why?" in this, Shirley! Cough up :)
Edit: also HDD demand will increase and force pressure on that specific market. Long term looks pretty bleak for the box pushers, across the board.
[@AC - I think you (totally) missed the point.]
Demand and Supply
I think AI is also driving HDD costs up due to cold storage of those enormous datasets.
There aren't that many manufacturers of DRAM, SSDs or HDDs ... perhaps this is profiteering too.
Not me
I'm waiting for the AI bubble to burst in a year or two, and hoping my hardware holds on until then. Then it'll be fire sale prices.
Re: Not me
I hope you're right. But I fear that greed is constant and trends upwards.
Why would you have to buy the servers now?
If you're willing to do that, it makes more sense to buy the RAM now, and buy the servers you'll put the RAM in when you need them. That way you benefit from getting better servers at the time of purchase (unless you are only looking a month or two in advance and no new server CPUs are released in the meantime) and you don't have to front nearly as much money.
I'll bet there are some already doing this, and that's only exacerbating the DRAM shortages and price spikes.
Re: Why would you have to buy the servers now?
Except they'll bring out DDR6 servers, making your stock of DDR5 RAM worthless.
Cut jobs to maintain that margin
Don't worry, all the big OEMs margin & Wall St. will be safe, they will simply reduce operating costs to buffer the margin impact.