The World Has Long Suffered from DRAM

DRAM prices are skyrocketing. Discover how AMD, Apple, Marvell, and Sandisk are using AI, CXL, and flash to beat the memory crisis.

Currently, data centers are facing a new crisis—not insufficient computing power, but prohibitively expensive memory.

In recent years, the rapid large-scale expansion of AI workloads such as large model inference, in-memory databases, and high-performance computing has pushed data centers to the brink of memory resource constraints. DRAM, once a standard server component, has now become the most expensive and scarcest infrastructure resource. Soaring prices and rigid supply have emerged as key factors constraining the pace of AI computing power deployment.

According to Counterpoint Research tracking data, the price of 64GB DIMM memory rose 3.5 times between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, with the upward trend showing no signs of peaking. It is projected that by Q3 2026, the cumulative increase will reach 5 times.

TrendForce data is even more striking: In Q1 2026, DRAM contract prices surged 93% to 98% quarter-over-quarter, driving global DRAM industry revenue up 81% sequentially to $97 billion. Into Q2, the rally continued unabated, with contract prices expected to rise another 58% to 63%.

Spot market signals are even clearer: Current server-grade DDR5 RDIMM spot prices range from $27 to $37 per GB. Simply building a 12TB memory pool would incur nearly $500,000 in pure DRAM hardware procurement costs.