The memory market is in turmoil, thanks to voracious AI data centers. Memory makers are shifting their production to meet recent demand, and prices are spiking as stock runs low. Now, as Tom's Guide points out, rumors are circulating that Samsung is raising DDR5 RAM prices significantly. If you're planning a PC build in the near future, stocking up on memory now might not be a bad idea.
It's always important to take rumors with a big grain of salt—and even more so because Samsung had to put down a different rumor this week. Still, the memory shortage seems to be a growing problem for chip makers and computer makers alike. Analysts at TrendForce indicated that Dell, Lenovo, and other laptop makers may need to reduce their products’ RAM specs as prices surge.
On X, a Korean analyst who goes by @Jukan05 reported that Samsung is raising its contract prices to $19.50. If that's accurate, DDR5 will indeed have experienced a more than 100% increase. This would be the second time Samsung has raised memory prices in as many months. As Reuters noted in November, the memory maker raised the prices of certain products by as much as 60% from September.
Credit: Samsung
As mentioned, Samsung flatly denied reports that it was shelving its consumer SSD products earlier this week. Killing off SSD would seem like an outlandish claim in other times, but right now, the memory world is in flux. Micron, which has been a major player in the SSD and RAM market for years with its Crucial line, announced earlier this month that it is putting an end to those products so it can focus on producing low-power and HBM memory for—you guessed it—AI datacenters.
With Micron backing off its Crucial memory (sales will come to an end around February 2026), consumers are watching other big memory makers with concern. For now, though, there aren't any signs that any will join Micron in ditching RAM and SSDs altogether. Instead, it looks like price increases are going to be the name of the game.