The common wisdom is that AI is at fault: The technology isn’t contributing to higher energy prices and layoffs
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But the shortage was brewing well before ChatGPT took off, and was then amplified by AI’s unending hunger for RAM.
Key facts
- Citing soaring memory costs, Microsoft recently raised Xbox prices by another $100 to $150, leaving some models as much as $300 more expensive than at launch
- By the time we’re done, we’ll have built probably 15 to 20 million actual square feet of building space to support the 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom,” Bhatia told The Verge
- Rather than releasing its full lineup at once this fall, Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max alongside its first foldable iPhone, while holding the standard iPhone 18
- Counterpoint estimates that Samsung controlled 39 percent of the memory market in the second quarter of 2026, followed by SK Hynix at 26 percent and Micron at 25 percent
Summary
When Apple debuts the next generation of iPhones this week, they’re likely to come with an unwanted change: a higher price tag. Call it “ chipflation ” or “ RAMageddon.” The shortage is reversing a decades-long decline in memory costs that helped make consumer electronics more powerful without making them dramatically more expensive. The common wisdom is that AI is at fault: The technology isn’t contributing to higher energy prices and layoffs; it’s also helping drive up the cost of everything from smartphones to game consoles. “We need to build more wafer capacity,” Manish Bhatia, president and COO of Micron, one of the three largest memory manufacturers, told The Verge.