Rising cost of traditional IT: temporary spike or long-term shift?

Pricing of memory chips is notoriously volatile. The production lines that make them cost billions of dollars and need to run at full capacity. This means that spot market pricing is extremely sensitive to any supply-demand imbalances. Prices crater when there is excess supply and soar when supply tightens. The IT market is currently witnessing the latter in the extreme.

The DRAM chip price increases in the second half of 2025 were anticipated by market researchers such as TrendForce, as well as by major producers including Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. However, the brunt of the pricing shock was expected to be borne by consumer electronics, smartphones and PCs, rather than server products, with the overall market finding a new balance by early 2026. This did not happen.