The AI industry’s obsession with building out enormous data centers to house power-hungry chips has put a major strain on the electronics market.
First, the price of graphical processing units (GPUs) started shooting through the roof. Then the price of RAM skyrocketed, followed by both solid-state and mechanical hard drives.
While that’s a nightmare scenario for anyone looking to build a desktop computer, the economic pressure is already affecting the rest of the consumer electronics world as well, as The Verge reports. Practically everything has a computer built into it, which could result in everything from hospital equipment to farm tractors becoming more expensive.
Tech companies have resorted to pushing back releases of enthusiast GPUs, VR headsets, and gaming consoles as a result of skyrocketing prices.
Following record sales in 2025, the smartphone market could also be clobbered this year as RAM supplies run extremely low. Even iPhone maker Apple is “getting squeezed,” as SemiAnalysis’ Sravan Kundojjala told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, with the AI hype eating far into the company’s margins as component prices rise.
The chip crisis has hit the gaming industry particularly hard, with Bloomberg reporting that Nintendo’s already expensive Switch 2 gaming console may soon get a price hike. Sony’s long-awaited PlayStation 6 console may also be delayed entirely, according to the publication’s sources.
It’s a brutal new reality as AI companies continue to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into enormous data centers, which is also causing electricity prices to spike.
It’s hard not to see consumers bearing the brunt of the tech industry’s current obsession, as AI companies continue to try to justify their enormous, unprecedented spending to rattled investors.
How long what some are starting to refer to as “RAMageddon” will drag on remains to be seen. As Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan admitted earlier this month, there may not be any “relief until 2028” — which is not exactly what anybody who was planning to buy a new smartphone, laptop, or gaming console wanted to hear.
More on RAM: AI Data Centers Are Now Spiking Hard Drive Prices
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