Why did RAM get so expensive all of a sudden?

Question

so i put my build together early last year, grabbed a 32gb vengeance kit at 6000 cl30 back in february and honestly didnt think twice about the price. now a mate wants me to spec him something similar and i went to price the ram and nearly fell off my chair. saw 32gb kits sitting in the high three hundreds when i looked in june. did i just get lucky on timing or is there something obvious im missing here tbh

buildlog2021 · Accepted Answer

You didn't miss anything, your timing went your way. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have been shifting fab capacity to HBM for AI accelerators, which pays them roughly 3 to 5 times per wafer over standard DDR5. IDC put 2026 supply growth at about 16% and vendors announced 15 to 20% hikes, numbers roughly from memory. The wafers are being reallocated for the long haul, so this isn't a spike that settles back down.

fanspinning · Answer

guess my two sticks are technically appreciating assets now, retirement fund sorted lol

twomonitors · Answer

Isn't this basically graphics cards all over again from a few years back, where the supply got bought up and the rest of us paid for it? Is that what's happening?