November 22, 2025
Great news for anyone trying to build a PC right now: you're about to get ripped off. Samsung just hiked their DRAM contract prices by a massive 60% in the last two months alone. A 32GB DDR5 kit that was affordable in September is now priced like a luxury item.
Why? Because of the insufferable AI bubble. Again.
Apparently, training chatbots to hallucinate wrong answers requires an ungodly amount of memory. Data centers are panic-buying every stick of server-grade DRAM and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) they can get their hands on. Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix are shifting all their production lines to feed these AI farms because that's where the fat margins are. The result? The consumer market is left with scraps.
We are seeing a "perfect storm" of corporate greed and supply bottlenecks. Manufacturers spent all of 2023 cutting production to artificially inflate prices, and now that demand is back, they aren't ramping up consumer production. They're chasing the AI gold rush.
Analysts say this pricing hellscape is going to last well into 2026. So, if you were planning an upgrade, you have two choices: pay the "AI Tax" to Samsung, or scour the used market. Personally? I’d rather buy used than reward this behavior. Hold onto your wallet.