RAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortage

Best Buy has raised the price of the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC to $2,099 — the first time a major US retailer is directly selling an RTX 5080 for more than the $1,999 MSRP of the RTX 5090, VideoCardz reports. The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC now costs 40 percent more than its launch price of $1,499, and over double the $999 MSRP of the RTX 5080 Founders Edition.

As VideoCardz notes, this is currently the only RTX 5080 directly sold by Best Buy that’s priced over the RTX 5090’s MSRP. There are still other RTX 5080 GPUs available for significantly less, including at other retailers — Asus is selling the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC for $1,899, which is still more than its launch price but a bit lower than Best Buy. However, component shortages and RAM price hikes aren’t showing any sign of slowing down any time soon, so more RTX 5080 GPUs could see similar price hikes.

RAMageddon won’t be the only reason your next phone costs more — Qualcomm is about to raise prices on all its processors, as well. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on Wednesday that “prices are going to go up” on the company’s products starting on September 1st, CNBC reports. The price hikes were rumored last week to be “a percentage in the double digits.”

Qualcomm announced the planned price increases while reporting a 20 percent year-over-year drop in revenue from its handset business, the lowest it’s reported since 2021. In its quarterly earnings presentation, Qualcomm said this drop is due to “unprecedented increases in memory pricing and supply constraints,” which have been driving up prices on everything from game consoles to laptops and even Raspberry Pi boards, with no sign of stopping any time soon. But instead of profiting less as a result, the company says it’ll raise its own prices to compensate.

The first modern GPU with 4GB of VRAM has appeared, as RAM prices and component shortages push tech prices higher. As Digital Foundry reports, a listing for an AMD Radeon RX 9050 with 4GB of RAM was spotted on ASRock’s website by a user on X, the same day ASRock also launched an 8GB version of the RX 9050.

Does it make sense to buy a graphics card with just 4GB of VRAM? According to the specs on ASRock’s website, the 4GB version of the RX 9050 is built on AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture and has a 64-bit memory interface, 16 compute units, and a boost clock speed of up to 2,600MHz / 18GBps. That should be enough to enable new features like FSR 4, but is far below the suggested requirements of current AAA titles like Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Halo: Campaign Evolved, even if you’re willing to run at 1080p and aren’t worried about future proofing.

Framework laptops always come with compromises in exchange for their unique DIY premise. Even though you pay extra for one compared to sleeker options from competitors, it’s easier to excuse minor flaws for modular ports, easy repairs, and an impressive range of upgradeable parts. So what happens when Framework goes “Pro”? We get a one-of-a-kind jewel among notebooks.

The 13 Pro corrects and improves many shortcomings of the regular Laptop 13. It has a bright and sharp touchscreen, the best haptic trackpad not made by Apple, and an impeccable build and feel. Take all that and marry it to a great Intel chip and cutting-edge user-replaceable LPCAMM2 memory — both of which help to better balance performance and extra-long battery life — and you’ve got something really special.

The China-based memory firm ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) had a massive first day on the Shanghai stock exchange after its shares surged 466 percent, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. The stock market frenzy boosted CXMT’s valuation to $484 billion, making it the most valuable Chinese company listed on the exchange.

CXMT looks to challenge Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix, which currently control the majority of the global memory market. But with demand from data-hungry AI giants straining the memory industry, device makers are searching for alternatives to keep costs low.

Google’s vice president of devices and services, Shakil Barkat, all but confirmed in an interview with 9to5 Google that its next Pixel phone would cost more than the Pixel 10. Considering the ongoing RAM supply issues due to the explosion of AI data centers, the rumored price hike is not a complete surprise. Companies from Apple to Nintendo and Microsoft to Roku have all raised their prices in response to the soaring cost of memory.

Barkat said that Google had “shielded our consumers from supply fluctuations for as long as possible,” but that the “economics have fundamentally shifted and we’re not immune to that.” He went on to tell 9to5 that the Pixel lineup would see pricing “adjustments,” accordingly, that “will be rolled out dynamically to match supply realities.”

Qualcomm sent a letter to customers on Friday warning of plans to increase its prices by “a percentage in the double digits,” Bloomberg reports. The price hikes will go into effect starting with products shipped after September 1st.

Qualcomm claims it has “exhausted its ability to absorb higher costs from suppliers,” as ongoing component shortages continue to drive up prices. The company also said it attempted to source components from alternate suppliers prior to announcing the price hikes.

Roku has increased prices across its streaming hardware, with the cheapest HD Streaming Stick now priced at $39.99 instead of $29.99, as first reported by The Desk. The price hike affects all of Roku’s other devices as well, with some increasing by as much as $50. Here’s a rundown of the changes:

Roku is currently holding a sale that puts some devices at their original prices, which you can see on this archived web page. Fox announced plans to acquire Roku last month.

RAMageddon has claimed yet another victim, with Framework now announcing a “major and unfortunate” pricing update for its upcoming premium laptop — which also impacts folks who preordered it. Memory configurations for the Laptop 13 Pro have been adjusted after Framework says it received cost updates from its memory supplier that “are more than double that of the prior inventory.”

While Framework says it has enough LPCAMM2 memory modules on hand to cover all existing preorders, they’re not the right mix of 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB modules to match all preorder configurations. The company is now notifying some customers that the memory configuration (and consequently, price) on their Laptop 13 Pro order has been updated. Framework has apologized for the changes, and is offering cancellations with full deposit refunds for customers who are unhappy with their new configuration.

Last year, Microsoft’s 13-inch Surface Laptop quickly became one of my favorite thin-and-light Windows notebooks. At $900, it was easy to recommend to anyone wanting MacBook Air–like build quality and battery life on Windows — I even convinced my sister to buy one on sale.

But that was last year. This year, thanks to RAMageddon, that same laptop costs $950, and now that price gets you half as much RAM — just 8GB. It’s the same great hardware on the outside, but it’s not the same laptop on the inside.

As the AI boom boosts demand for RAM, SK Hynix — one of the world’s biggest suppliers of memory chips — launched on Wall Street Friday. The South Korean chipmaker opened at $170 per share and raised $26.5 billion, surpassing Alibaba’s record as the largest debut of a foreign company, according to reports from The Associated Press and CNN.

After reaching a $1 trillion valuation in May, SK Hynix briefly overtook Samsung as South Korea’s most valuable company. SK Hynix is one of three major companies benefitting from a surge in demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). These components have become essential for the widespread buildout of AI data centers, as tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google use DRAM for the servers to power their AI models, while HBM comes packaged inside high-end AI chips like Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra.

Apple is looking to alleviate some of the pressure on its supply chain by seeking an exception from the Trump administration to buy RAM chips from CXMT, a company blacklisted by the Pentagon over ties to the People’s Liberation Army, according to the Financial Times. The skyrocketing prices of RAM and storage have driven Apple to raise prices on almost all of its products this week, so it makes sense that it would seek alternative sources.

Legally, Apple isn’t barred from buying chips from CXMT, but doing business with a company tied to the Chinese military would carry serious reputational risks. It’s possible that CXMT could still find itself the target of export controls for undermining US security. The company was on a list of proposed additions to the so-called “Entity List” by the Commerce Department, but held off because the White House was in the middle of trade negotiations with China.

Tim Cook recently said price increases were “unavoidable” and described the company’s pricing as “unsustainable.” The 16-inch MacBook Pro saw its price go up by $300. The 11-inch iPad Air went from $599 to $749. Even the HomePod Mini got a $30 bump to $129. Cook squarely placed the blame at the feet of the AI industry, which is not surprising. RAMageddon has already come for your desktop PCs and gaming consoles. The Xbox has seen its price climb nearly 25 percent depending on the model, and Nothing even canceled an entire phone launch. Apple is just the most recent to jack up prices and point the finger at AI.

The price hikes are “basic economics,” says Tim Derdenger, associate professor of marketing and strategy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. As the tech industry has raced to win the AI war, “the price of RAM has skyrocketed because the memory manufacturers have reallocated their production lines to produce new HBM memory for AI data centers and away from consumer DDR5.” And when the cost of components goes up, companies tend to pass those costs on to consumers.

Arduino’s Raspberry Pi-like microcomputer the Uno Q is joining many other devices in getting a price hike this week. The 2GB version of the Uno Q, which is powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 processor, will increase in price from $44 to $59, while the 4GB model is getting a slightly steeper increase from $59 to $79. If you’ve been eyeing the Uno Q as a cheaper alternative to Raspberry Pi’s current lineup, you have a little over a week to grab either version at the current price as the increases won’t take effect until July 6th.

In a letter shared through the official Arduino blog, the company’s chief product officer Marcello Majonchi says Arduino’s “memory component costs have more than doubled” over the last six months alone, “fueled by the enduring demand for AI applications.” The company has so far been able to hold off on raising prices “thanks to support from Qualcomm” which purchased Arduino last October, but “with no near-term signs of relief in memory supply or pricing, continuing to absorb these costs is no longer possible.”