How a DRAM price hike will impact your tech purchases
DRAM (the memory in your phone, laptop, and car) is set for a big price movement in 2026.
TrendForce projects HBM demand will rise about 70% year-over-year in 2026 vs 2025 as major chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix are shifting production toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centers, leaving less DRAM for everything else.
This move could hit industries from cars to smartphones.
Carmakers will feel the pinch 1st
Carmakers—who use less than 10% of all DRAM—will feel the pinch first.
With chipmakers focused on serving tech giants like Google and Meta, wait times for automotive chips could stretch up to 42 weeks.
Fewer new PCs and slower smartphone growth
Expect fewer new PCs (with forecasts ranging from modest declines to steeper contractions) and slower smartphone growth (with some forecasts predicting slow growth and others forecasting declines) in 2026 as companies deal with higher memory costs.
Some automakers may cut back on fancy tech features to save money, while panic buying could cause supply chain chaos like we saw during the Covid-era chip shortages (2020-2021).
Bottom line: demand is outpacing supply, so expect higher prices across the board.