Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months, up to 10x the lowest ever tracked prices

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-prices-climb-500-percent-in-12-months-up-to-10x-the-lowest-ever-tracked-prices-128gb-of-ddr5-now-usd3-399

34•haunter•39m ago

Comments

master_crab•26m ago

I’m even more confused by the economics of the frontier model businesses. Even if they got preferential prices, they are still paying an inordinate amount for their infrastructure.

If it wasn’t economically feasible without VC/Nvidia money 3 years ago, how is it possibly economically feasible now at 10x prices for things like memory?

phonon•11m ago

OpenAI (Stargate) kicked off the price increases a year ago by locking up 40% of the global supply of RAM output.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/openais-star...

dgellow•7m ago

There is a reason NVIDIA and the hyperscalers are injecting so much money into them

cosmic_cheese•25m ago

The situation is absolutely awful for anybody who needs significant memory or storage (or devices incorporating such).

Even people who think they have enough for the next few years already could end up with an unpleasant surprise if they e.g. have a stick or two of RAM go bad or a GPU fry. I have a few machines with aging sticks that I'm hoping will manage to hold out until when/if things improve.

forinti•12m ago

I've been using computers for more than 40 years now and the one component I have never seen fail is RAM.

All the other bits in a computer I've seen fail.

dgellow•9m ago

Well, you’re lucky. I had to change laptop memory sticks a few times. Though not since they are soldered directly to the motherboard

cosmic_cheese•8m ago

Anecdotally, RAM failures are more common than they used to be in previous decades, I assume due to increased capacities and smaller process nodes. Looser manufacturing standards may also play a part.

The component category I've never seen fail is CPU.

forinti•7m ago

You didn't hold on to your Pentium 4 long enough. :-)

dijit•5m ago

iLoveOncall•17m ago

Storage has more than doubled as well. The same SSD (4TB M.2) I bought in September 2025 for £229 is not £500.

I also had another order where I paid £30 for a 1TB SSD (sata though) and it is now more than £100...

palmotea•17m ago

Good. The more expensive memory is, the more everyone will be pushed into using cloud AI from hyperscalars.

They should each buy out a RAM manufacture, and make this the new normal.

It really is the best thing for AI adoption and the shareholders.

whateveracct•12m ago

what the heck

did you drop a '/s'?

unsui•10m ago

No, this is not good, in any way, except for AI shareholders (of which I assume you are one, else not rational to support this position).

Paperclipping here, greedily optimizing for shareholder value above all else. Please stop.

deadbunny•7m ago

Some people really so need the /s huh

unsui•5m ago

sadly, Poe's law scales exponentially on HN

dgellow•4m ago

To be fair, the AI boosters are saying the exact same thing but mean it seriously. There is no way to distinguish without a tone indicator

OutOfHere

OutOfHere•8m ago

I guess it's high time to stop using memory inefficient programming languages for any serious work.

josefritzishere•4m ago

The fake economics of the AI sector are damaging the real economy. This is madness.

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