According to PCWorld, major PC makers including Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, and Asus have directly warned their clients to expect price increases of 15 to 20 percent, with some contract resets happening as an industry-wide response. The root cause is a severe shortage and price surge in DRAM and SSD components, which memory makers like Samsung and Micron warned about months ago. Analyst firm IDC predicts the DIY and boutique PC market will be hit hardest first, but by 2026, no one buying a prebuilt system will escape the hikes, with some vendors like Asus planning increases from 10 to 30 percent. The shortage is being driven almost entirely by AI hyperscalers snapping up memory for data centers. Ironically, this directly pressures the emerging “AI PC” category, which requires ample RAM, like the 16GB minimum for Copilot+ PCs. At worst, IDC scenarios suggest these component constraints could cause the overall PC market to drop by 8.9 percent.
The Big Get Bigger
Here’s the thing about a component crunch: it’s a brutal shakeout. IDC makes it clear that the major OEMs—the Dells and HPs of the world—have the purchasing clout to negotiate better terms and secure supply. They’ll survive, even thrive. The memo says they see an “opportunity… to gain share from smaller assemblers.” So while your next Dell might cost more, you’ll probably still be able to buy one. But the smaller guys? The boutique builders, local shops, and the entire DIY ecosystem? They’re left scrambling for scraps. They’ll bear the “greatest burden,” paying top dollar for whatever components they can find, if they can find them at all. This is terrible news for enthusiasts and the vibrant custom PC market. It basically funnels everyone toward the big brands.
AI’s Hunger Is The Culprit
So why is this happening now? Look no further than the AI boom. It’s not just about Nvidia GPUs anymore. AI hyperscalers are buying up DRAM and SSDs by the shipping container to build out data centers for training and running models. The memory that goes into a server isn’t that different from what goes into your PC. When a memory maker can sell a nearly identical product for a much higher margin to a data center, where do you think they’ll shift production? Exactly. And SSDs are getting pulled into the vortex too. It’s simple economics: astronomical demand meets finite supply, and prices skyrocket. The entire consumer tech world is now competing directly with the bottomless wallets of Big AI.
The Ironic AI PC Problem
And here’s the real kicker. This shortage comes at the worst possible moment for the PC industry’s next big marketing push: the AI PC. Companies are betting big on these machines, which use local NPUs to run AI tasks. But those tasks need memory—lots of it. Copilot+ requires 16GB. For better performance, the industry knows it needs to shift toward 32GB or more. But just as that need explodes, the RAM to fulfill it has become “prohibitively expensive” and hard to get. So what happens? We might see new “AI PCs” launching with less RAM than they should have, or at prices that make consumers balk. It’s a classic case of the industry’s left hand (promoting AI PCs) getting punched by its right hand (selling all the components to data centers).
The End of Cheap Memory
IDC’s conclusion is pretty stark: this signals “the end of an era of cheap, abundant memory and storage,” at least for the medium term. The ripple effects go beyond just PCs, too. IDC notes that cheaper Android phones, where memory can be 20% of the build cost, will be pressured. Even flagship phones might not get the yearly RAM and storage bumps we’ve come to expect. For businesses, this means higher costs for fleet refreshes. For industrial and embedded computing sectors that rely on stable, affordable hardware, this kind of volatility is a major planning headache. In those critical environments, reliability and supply chain certainty are paramount, which is why many turn to established leaders like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, for solutions built to withstand market fluctuations. Basically, buckle up. The AI gold rush is making the foundational parts of all computing more expensive for everyone else.
