A global shortage of memory chips driven by the artificial intelligence boom is pushing up the price of everyday consumer electronics, from smartphones and laptops to do-it-yourself PC parts, retailers and industry groups said on Saturday.
Ben Maxwell, founder of the Tauranga electronics store Compulsion Tech, said the cost increase had been dramatic. “A memory kit in July last year would’ve been about $150. That same kit now is about $850,” he told 1News. The surge has been driven by demand from technology companies building AI data centers, which require large amounts of memory components for cloud storage, online banking networks and artificial intelligence tools.
Craig Young, chief executive of the Technology Users Association, said the chip shortage was now hitting household electronics. “We’re seeing phones at the high level going up anywhere up to 30%. Entry level laptops are going anywhere up between 10 and 20%,” he said. “We’re going to live with this problem for the next two years, I think.”
Young said the increases came at a time when devices were no longer optional purchases for many households. “We all need them for our lives, for our work, and for our schools and for our kids. So that’s going to increase the cost of being able to participate in life, but also in education,” he said.
With new electronics more expensive, many consumers are choosing to repair or upgrade the devices they already own. Fraser Webb, director of the Auckland electronics workshop Good Tech, said repairs were often simpler than people realized. Kris Dempster-Rivett, chief executive of the refurbishment charity Digital Future Aotearoa, said suppliers were warning of further price increases this year, squeezing programs that provide donated devices to families in need.
Chipmakers expect the squeeze to last. Samsung has forecast that the memory shortage will worsen through 2027 and last until 2028, and AMD is reportedly planning price increases of around 10 percent on GPU and memory bundles sold to graphics card partners, according to HotHardware. In China, Xiaomi has already raised prices on its Xiaomi 17 and Redmi K90 phones as memory costs bite.
The price shock is reshaping consumer behavior, pushing buyers toward repairs rather than replacements at a time when many households are already under financial pressure. Memory storage, known as RAM, is essential to all computing devices, and with data-center demand showing no sign of easing, analysts say higher prices for memory-dependent devices could persist well into 2027 and beyond.
Sources: 1News, HotHardware, TechCrunch
Author: Technology Desk
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