A global shortage of memory chips is expected to continue well into next year and potentially beyond, with analysts warning that supply growth is failing to keep pace with surging demand—a gap that has already driven widespread price increases across consumer electronics.
According to a report by Nikkei Asia, production would need to grow 12% per year through the end of 2027 to meet demand, but the industry is currently seeing only 7.5% growth. A supply-demand gap of around 40% persists in the interim, driven in large part by rising AI-related demand, as well as higher electricity and materials costs linked to instability in the Middle East.
The shortfall has already begun to ripple through the consumer market in tangible ways. Microsoft has cited rising memory and component costs to justify price increases of up to $500 across its Surface product line. Meta has attributed a price rise of up to $100 on its Quest 3 virtual reality headset to the same shortage. Raspberry Pi products have also seen increases of up to $150 in recent weeks.
South Korea dominates global RAM production. Samsung, the world's largest RAM manufacturer, has a major project under way at its Pyeongtaek manufacturing complex, but full-scale mass production of memory from that facility is not expected until next year. The company is also engaged in a separate legal dispute with labour organisers at the site, after asking courts to block activities it alleged were unlawful—a move the union described as a declaration of war.
For AI hardware customers in particular, the outlook is even more extended. Samsung does not expect to begin rolling out high-bandwidth memory DRAM, a specialist product designed for use with advanced AI processors, from the Pyeongtaek complex until at least 2028. In the meantime, SK Hynix's facility in Cheongju is expected to remain the only significant source of high-bandwidth memory throughout the remainder of 2026.
Counterpoint Research analyst MS Hwang, cited by Nikkei Asia, said that supply and demand in the memory market are unlikely to normalise until 2028.
