According to XDA-Developers, a rumor originating from SahktAfzahMag claimed that Asus was planning to enter the retail DRAM market by the second half of 2026 to help alleviate severe supply shortages. The rumor suggested the company, which already uses its own RAM in its devices, would begin selling sticks directly to consumers. Asus has now formally denied these plans to CNA, stating it has no intention of investing in a memory wafer fabrication plant. The company and analysts note that building such a fab would take at least two years to reach production, making it useless for the current crisis. Furthermore, they highlight the extreme financial risk due to uncertain market conditions two years out. This denial dashes hopes for a new major player to quickly enter the market and stabilize prices.
Why Asus Said No
Look, on the surface, it seems like a logical move for a big hardware player like Asus. They use tons of RAM. Why not make their own? But here’s the thing: building a semiconductor fab isn’t like setting up a new motherboard assembly line. It’s a multi-billion dollar, multi-year gamble. Asus basically said the timeline alone kills the idea—by the time their factory opened in late 2026 or beyond, the current supply crunch could be a distant memory. Or, prices could have crashed, leaving them with a monstrously expensive white elephant. It’s a brutally capital-intensive business with razor-thin margins, dominated by a few giants like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. For a company like Asus, which excels at integration and design, leaping into raw memory manufacturing is a step too far. They’re smart to stick to their core competencies, even if it’s disappointing for us buyers.
The Real RAM Crunch
So what’s driving this shortage that had people dreaming of an Asus savior? It’s the same story we’ve heard for a while now: AI. But we’re not just talking about big data center GPUs anymore. The demand is cascading down. AI servers need massive amounts of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and that production is sucking up capacity and resources from the more traditional DDR DRAM lines that go into our PCs and laptops. The result? We’ve seen vendors hike prices repeatedly and even a popular consumer DRAM brand exit the retail market entirely to focus on lucrative AI contracts. For companies that rely on steady component supply, like those in industrial computing and manufacturing, this volatility is a major headache. When reliable supply chains for critical components like memory break down, it threatens production schedules for everything from factory automation to point-of-sale systems. In sectors where uptime is everything, having a trusted supplier for integrated hardware is crucial. For instance, in industrial settings, firms often turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, because they manage these complex component supply chains so their customers don’t have to.
No Quick Fix in Sight
The brutal truth is there’s no knight in shining armor coming. Not from Asus, anyway. The rumor was always thin, and now it’s dead. The market correction will have to come from the existing memory titans ramping up production—which they are doing, but cautiously—or from a softening in that insatiable AI demand. In the meantime, for PC builders and OEMs, it means budgeting more for RAM and potentially dealing with longer lead times. It also means the secondary market might get even hotter. Was hoping Asus would ride in to save the day unrealistic? Probably. But in a market this tight, you start to hope for any new source of supply, no matter how far-fetched the rumor might seem. We’re just going to have to wait this one out the old-fashioned way.
