What We Know About the RAM Shortage Lasting Through 2028

Executives at Micron and Samsung, two of the world's largest memory chip makers, say the global shortage of RAM will not ease for at least two more years, according to comments reported by Ars Technica. The shortage has already pushed up prices on prebuilt computers, smartphones, streaming sticks and game consoles. Here is what is driving it and what to expect through 2028.

What did Micron's CEO say about the shortage?

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors this week that demand for the company's memory will keep outpacing supply for the next couple of years, Ars Technica reported, citing a transcript from Seeking Alpha. "Overall, supply-demand environment is only getting tighter," Mehrotra said.

Micron no longer sells memory directly to consumers. Its comments cover business-to-business sales of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, used in AI systems, and DRAM sold to server makers. But those sales decisions ripple into the consumer market because factory capacity that could make RAM for laptops and phones is instead being used for AI and server chips.

Why is AI demand squeezing consumer RAM supply?

Mehrotra said 75 percent of Micron's memory output for 2027 is already sold, and most current sales conversations with customers are now about 2028 supply. Demand for HBM is outpacing demand for standard DRAM, he said.

"For 2027, a large part of the volume is already sold out for 2027 for HBM, and the prices are much higher than 2026 prices." — Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO, Micron

Samsung executive Kim Taewoo, an executive vice president at the company, said this week that HBM will take up almost 30 percent of DRAM manufacturers' wafer capacity in 2027, up from 20 percent this year, according to Reuters as cited by Ars Technica. Every wafer devoted to HBM is a wafer not making standard memory for consumer devices.

Mehrotra said the drivers behind the demand are not slowing down. "Demand trends of larger models, growing context, more concurrency, greater agents across enterprise, and consumer only continue to drive greater need for memory," he said, pointing to both AI data centers and ordinary consumer devices.

How long will the shortage last?

Micron plans to open new clean rooms for memory manufacturing in 2028, but Mehrotra said that will not fix the problem quickly. "Even after they are built, even after first wafer output, production ramps up only gradually in the clean rooms," he said. "That's just the nature of what it takes to bring up production."

He also pointed to a technical shift inside HBM production — a move from the current "3E" generation to a mix of newer "4" and "4E" versions — that creates what he called "headwinds with respect to supply growth," partly because newer manufacturing nodes produce smaller productivity gains per wafer than older ones did.

Micron has not given a date when supply will catch up with demand, according to the Ars Technica report.

What does this mean for consumer electronics prices?

Micron's Crucial brand, which once sold RAM directly to consumers, stopped doing so this year. The company announced the move in December 2025. Chief business officer Sumit Sadana said at the time the change was about improving "supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments" as AI demand grew, per Ars Technica.

The effects are already showing up on store shelves. Ars Technica reported that the shortage has raised the cost of prebuilt PCs, pushed computer makers to offer lower RAM configurations at higher prices, and contributed to higher prices on smartphones, streaming sticks and gaming consoles.

Memory terms explained

• DRAM: Dynamic random-access memory, the standard memory chip used in computers, phones and most consumer electronics.
• HBM: High-bandwidth memory, a faster, more expensive type of memory used mainly in AI data center chips.
• Clean room: A controlled manufacturing space, free of dust and contaminants, where memory chips are fabricated.
• Wafer: A thin slice of silicon that chipmakers use as the base material to build memory chips.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will the RAM shortage end? Micron has not given a specific end date. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said he does not know when supply will catch up with demand, according to Ars Technica.

Why did Micron stop selling RAM to consumers? The company's Crucial brand exited direct consumer RAM sales in 2025 so Micron could redirect manufacturing capacity toward larger, higher-priority customers buying memory for AI and data centers, chief business officer Sumit Sadana said.

Which devices are getting more expensive because of the shortage? Ars Technica reported price increases tied to the memory crunch on prebuilt PCs, smartphones, streaming sticks and gaming consoles.