Memory giant Micron has celebrated the continued rise in RAM and memory costs continuing into “calendar 2027 as well as 2028”.
While Micron previously predicted that the global memory shortage would start to ease by 2028, the company is now predicting that the year will continue to see price hikes. While bad for consumers as prices continue to skyrocket, the issues are leading to exorbitant profits for the company.
CEO Sanjay Mehrotra explained in the company’s latest earnings call, via The Register, that they have already sold the bulk of memory for 2027 prior to its manufacturing. While admitting that customers were pushed to spend significantly more on memory throughout 2026, they add that there will be “much higher prices” throughout 2027.
Mehrotra explained that throughout 2027 and 2028 “we see demand exceeding supply” as datacenters and AI companies purchase memory that has yet to be manufactured. “In fact, we see greater tightness in the industry in 2027 and in 2028 versus 2026,” he continued.
The CEO explained that AI datadenters are targeting high-bandwidth memory in unparalleled amounts with growth now exceeding DRAM needs. However, the company is also looking to expand its margins for the hardware, charging more for the same amount of memory as demand increases.
In response to the demand, Micron is also opening more factories throughout 2028, but the introduction of new factories will not cause a drop in pricing. Additionally, availability of memory is now expected to improve throughout 2028, and the company does “not have line-of-sight on when supply and demand will return to balance”.
It’s worth noting that Micron has already abandoned the consumer market for memory. In a statement last year, the company announced its exist from consumer business “in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments”. Essentially, AI datacenters are more profitable, so consumer grade hardware was sacrificed.
With that said, Micron’s actions are likely to remain true throughout the rest of the industry as well. Following the massive rise in prices from Micron last year, consumer manufacturers followed suit, which means that higher prices are likely coming again for consumer-grade RAM and storage throughout 2027 and 2028.
Right now, all of this is caused by the AI datacenter boom, which is still ongoing as trillions is poured into artificial intelligence. However, as AI fails to generate a profit—with reports claiming the industry has until just 2030 to start making money—the bubble is likely to at least deflate somewhat by the end of the decade. I guess my DDR4 rig can last until then.
