Samsung says RAM prices will possible result in worth hikes quickly
Samsung says AI knowledge center-fueled RAM shortage may increase the corporate’s costs. Wonjin Lee, Samsung’s world advertising and marketing chief, sounded the alarm in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday at CES 2026. As just lately as early December, Samsung advised Reuters that it was monitoring the market however would not touch upon pricing. So, the change of tune may be seen as a deliberate sign to melt the bottom forward of an official announcement.
“There’s going to be points round semiconductor provides, and it should have an effect on everybody,” Samsung’s Lee mentioned. “Costs are going up whilst we converse. Clearly, we do not wish to convey that burden to the customers, however we will be at some extent the place now we have to really contemplate repricing our merchandise.”
Samsung seems to be softening the bottom forward of an official announcement. (Samsung)
The world RAM scarcity is the results of AI knowledge facilities gobbling up high-bandwidth reminiscence. Reminiscence producers have shifted their output priorities to satisfy that demand, resulting in a snowball impact the place even the low-bandwidth RAM present in cars is affected.
“AI workloads are constructed round reminiscence,” Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO of Greyhound Analysis, advised NPR in late December. “AI has modified the character of demand itself. Coaching and inference programs require massive, persistent reminiscence footprints, excessive bandwidth, and tight proximity to compute. You can not dial this down with out breaking efficiency.”
It has been greater than three years since ChatGPT launched and kicked off the AI craze. Throughout that point, corporations have hyped chatbots and different generative AI instruments as a expertise that may take us to the promised land, making life simpler as machine studying automates our each day lives. It is not but clear if an AI bubble is about to burst, however some monetary forecasters have sounded the alarm. Regardless, it is laborious to see how customers and staff are getting something however the brief finish of the stick up to now.