The RAM Shortage Explained: It's Worse Than You Think

RAM prices are up nearly 500% in a year: a 64GB DDR5 kit went from $191 to $1,118. Here's the math behind the 2026 memory shortage, and why AI data centers and HBM are eating your RAM. We break down where the memory went. HBM for AI chips uses about 3x the wafer area of DDR5 (per Micron), Micron shut down its Crucial consumer brand, and OpenAI's Stargate deal targets up to 900,000 DRAM wafers a month, up to 40% of global output by TrendForce's estimate. Then we do the math on one Nvidia AI rack: roughly the memory of 970 gaming PCs. Plus: what it means for GPU, laptop and smartphone prices, when RAM prices could come down, and what to do right now if you need to build or upgrade a PC. Subscribe for daily breakdowns of local AI and the hardware behind it, and tell me in the comments what you paid for your last RAM kit. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:00 The price tag 2:12 Where your RAM went 4:18 One AI rack 5:32 It's not just RAM 6:39 When does it end? 7:30 What to do right now