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ThinkView Notification, 21:00, November 27, 2025, Guangdong

How far has the cost of storage price increases been passed on? Currently, multiple PC manufacturers have issued warnings that memory modules will rise in price, significantly increasing PC costs. Consumers purchasing related products in 2026 may become the ultimate bearers of this surge in prices.

PC Retailers: Memory Module Prices to Rise in the UK and US

Memory prices have surged by 500%.

PC retailer CyberPowerPC has just announced that it will increase memory module prices in the US and UK. According to the company's statement, although the prices of memory and solid-state drives have been rising since October 2025, the price adjustments will not begin until December this year.

CyberPowerPC assured customers that this is only a temporary adjustment and that prices will decrease once costs come down. However, the company expects this trend to continue into 2026, noting that memory prices have recently risen by 500%, while solid-state drive prices have increased by 100%.

US consumer electronics giants such as Dell and HP have also issued warnings that, with the explosive growth in demand for AI infrastructure, there may be a severe shortage of memory chips next year.

Dell's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Clarke, said he had never seen costs rise so quickly, feeling the tightening of DRAM supply, with shortages also affecting hard drives and NAND flash. The cost base for all products is rising. Although Dell is adjusting product configurations and combinations, the impact will ultimately be passed on to consumers, with the company considering all options, including adjusting the pricing of some devices.

He pointed out that the supply of three key components — high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) for personal computers, and hard drives and NAND flash — is becoming tighter. He said, "The cost structure for all products is going up."

HP's CEO, Enrique Lores, also noted that the second half of next year will face particularly severe challenges, and the company will raise product prices if necessary. The company estimates that memory costs account for 15% to 18% of the total cost of a typical PC. It is currently adopting a cautious performance guidance strategy, such as increasing the number of memory suppliers and reducing product memory configurations.

Mobile Phone Manufacturers Stockpiling Memory Chips

Downstream manufacturers such as Xiaomi have already sounded the alarm about potential chip price increases, and companies like Lenovo have also begun to stockpile memory chips to cope with rising costs.

Xiaomi's President, Lu Weibing, mentioned that the increase in the prices of components such as memory is one reason for the decline in mobile phone gross margins. He suggested that cost pressures might be absorbed through price increases, but the fundamental solution lies in optimising product structures and promoting high-end products.

Leveraging its economies of scale, Lenovo claimed that the unprecedented surge in costs has led to memory inventory levels that are about 50% higher than in previous years. Taiwan-based computer giant ASUS has also accelerated its stockpiling efforts, with both Lenovo and ASUS planning to maintain stable prices during the holiday season.

Apple's CFO acknowledged upward pressure on memory prices but emphasised that Apple can effectively manage costs and secure favourable supply terms.

Memory chips are primarily divided into two categories: one assists in processing and computation, while the other is used for data storage. To meet the demands of AI systems and the need for updated, more complex, and higher-margin products, manufacturers are shifting more capacity towards these high-end chips, resulting in supply shortages for more common types of memory.

Shortages in memory supply could drive up the manufacturing costs of a wide range of products, from mobile phones to medical devices and automobiles. These chips are used in almost all modern electronic devices that require data storage, with the AI boom indirectly being a catalyst.

Driven by the rise in storage chip prices, the valuations of major global memory manufacturers have soared significantly. SK Hynix announced last month that it has sold out its entire memory chip product line for next year, while Micron estimates that supply tightness will persist until 2026. Japan's Kioxia Holdings Corporation has also seen its share price multiply several times due to supply constraints.

SK Group's Chairman, Chey Tae-won, recently warned of supply bottleneck risks, noting that many companies are requesting memory chip supplies.

DRAM Price Surge in Q4

Research firm TrendForce indicated that after a strong performance in both volume and price in Q3, the DRAM industry will enter a new phase of "price over volume" in Q4. With original manufacturers' inventories generally depleted, the quarterly shipment growth will significantly decline. However, to ensure a stable supply, cloud service providers (CSPs) are relatively open to price increases, and other application areas will inevitably have to follow suit, driving up DRAM contract prices.

TrendForce estimates that general-purpose DRAM contract prices will increase by 45-50% quarter-on-quarter in Q4. If high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is included, the combined contract price increase for general-purpose DRAM and HBM could reach 50-55%. This means that although the industry's revenue increased by 30.9% quarter-on-quarter in Q3, reaching $41.4 billion due to the volume increase of HBM and the rise in general-purpose DRAM contract prices, the real "main price show" will be in Q4.

The report pointed out that with original manufacturers' inventory levels returning to a relatively healthy range, Q4 will no longer focus on "volume shipments" but will adjust contract prices to compensate for the low-price pressures of the past few years. CSPs, urgently needing to secure medium- and long-term agreements and capacity for AI computing and data centre construction, will be the main customers accepting price increases. If mobile phones, PCs, and other consumer and industrial applications do not promptly comply with price adjustments, they may face the dual pressures of not being able to obtain goods or having to passively follow price increases.

Overall, TrendForce believes that the DRAM market has rapidly shifted from the trough of "price reduction and inventory clearance" in the past two years to a seller's market characterised by "supply tightness and price dominance." For downstream customers, Q4 is not only the key quarter where cost pressures begin to intensify but will also determine whether they can stabilise memory supply and gross margin space in the AI and high-end computing wave next year.