Memory prices are spiking across the board, and one of the world’s biggest PC makers says the pain is here to stay. Lenovo executive Hiegl has warned that DRAM and NAND prices will likely “never” return to the lows seen roughly a year ago, a statement the company later softened to mean the next five years or so rather than literally forever.
The warning landed alongside news that the Xbox Series X has reached around $800 for at least one SKU, a steep jump from its 2020 launch price of $499.99. Microsoft has been quietly nudging Xbox hardware prices upward across its lineup, with higher-end and special-edition models taking the hardest hits.
The reason is simple: AI. Data centers building out generative AI infrastructure are gobbling up DRAM, NAND, HBM, and enterprise SSDs at a record pace. The “Big Three” memory suppliers, Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron, are prioritizing high-margin server and HBM orders, leaving consumer electronics makers fighting over what’s left.
That squeeze is showing up everywhere. DDR5 kits that were dirt cheap a year ago have multiplied in price. SSDs are climbing. Laptops, handhelds, gaming PCs, and consoles all share the same supply pool, and they’re all getting more expensive to build.
New supply isn’t coming fast either. Memory fabs cost tens of billions and take years to build. Micron alone is reportedly lining up around $200bn in long-term capex, but meaningful new capacity isn’t expected to hit until around 2028.
Lenovo isn’t a chipmaker, it’s a system builder that buys components like everyone else. But as one of the largest PC vendors on the planet, its outlook is a clear signal of what’s coming for ThinkPads, Legion gaming rigs, Lenovo’s handhelds, and pretty much every memory-heavy device on shelves.
The console math is getting weird
Consoles usually get cheaper as a generation ages. This one is doing the opposite. An $800 Xbox Series X sits firmly in gaming PC territory, and if memory stays expensive, the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation could launch at prices that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
Memory markets are cyclical, and prices have crashed before after every shortage. But with AI demand showing no signs of slowing and new fabs years away, the cheap-RAM era of 2024 is looking less like the baseline and more like a fluke.
