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There are essentially three companies making the majority of the world's RAM: Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. Each one operates manufacturing plants worth billions of dollars, executing the sorts of precision engineering that even rocket scientists think is tough. RAM is the catch-all term for the technology, and aside from some hyper-specific uses like CPU caches, DRAM is what you'll find in consumer electronics. DRAM comes in many flavors, including DDR (Double Data Rate) for PCs and Low Power DDR (LPDDR) for mobile devices. But there's another type of RAM called HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), w

The short answer is: AI. The medium answer is: AI companies, flush with cash from investors, have bought up pretty much the whole world's supply of RAM. The long answer is that, for the last two decades or so, the global RAM market has been pretty predictable. We may want more RAM in our devices over time, but the total volume of RAM modules required each year has been pretty stable. The industry knows how many phones and PCs people will buy each year and they know what the upgrade cycles look like. Mostly, the more dramatic changes are well-telegraphed: When, say, Microsoft launches a new OS

These days, nobody knows, and the price of RAM could sink dramatically if the AI bubble bursts ahead of schedule. If that doesn't happen, then the best people to ask are those who actually make the stuff, and they don't think it'll be quick. In an interview with Reuters, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung says things are going to get worse in 2027. (If the DigiTimes report is accurate, then every piece of RAM may already be accounted for.) He also expects that demand will continue to outstrip supply beyond 2030. Speaking to investors in June, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said he expects to see "tight co