Supply shortages and significant increases in RAM and storage prices have been noted serious obstacle for PC enthusiasts and builders in recent months. And while we haven't yet seen significant and widespread price increases for memory-dependent products like off-the-shelf laptops, smartphones, and graphics cards, most companies I expect that to change this year if the shortage continues.
Meanwhile, memory makers are taking advantage of strong demand and high prices to achieve record profits.
In Revenue Guide released this weekSamsung Electronics expects its operating profit to be between 19.9 trillion won and 20.1 trillion Korean won (approximately $13.8 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from just 6.49 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Of course, Samsung is more than just a memory business, but its fortunes often rise and fall with its memory division; Samsung's profit was will fall sharply in 2023 partly because excess supply memory, causing its memory division to lose billions of dollars.
Less diversified companies that primarily make memory have also been making money lately. SK Hynix posted its “highest-ever quarterly result” in the third quarter of 2025, with operating profit of 11.38 trillion Korean won (about 7.8 billion US dollars), up from 7.03 trillion. in the third quarter of 2024and operating margin increased from 40 to 47 percent. SK Hynix credits its performance to “increasing investment in AI infrastructure” and “growing demand for AI servers.”
Micron, which recently decided exit the consumer RAM and storage markets but still sells its products to other businesses – also reported big impulse to net income on an annualized basis from $1.87 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to $5.24 billion in the first quarter of 2026. This resulted in the company's “highest ever free cash flow.”
“The company's total revenue, DRAM and NAND revenue, as well as HBM and data center revenue and revenue in each of our business units also reached new records. [in fiscal Q1]”Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra wrote.
Why is RAM so expensive now?
Reading these bullish reports and earnings forecasts will be cold comfort to people trying to build or upgrade PCs who have seen the price of a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit rise from $80 in August 2025 to $340 today. And if the current AI boom continues, it's unlikely to improve in the near future.
