In late December, notable SSD and memory brand Micron announced that its Crucial brand would be leaving the consumer memory industry by the end of January as the company shifted its focus to supplying memory to far more lucrative tech giant AI data centers. Given this leaves SK hynix and Samsung as the two remaining consumer DRAM makers, this move is expected to make the ongoing memory shortage even worse.

Since revealing plans to leave the consumer market, Micron has remained quiet, but at CES 2026, Christopher Moore, Micron's Vice-President of Marketing, Mobile and Client Business Unit, discussed the move in an interview with WCCFTech, emphasizing that from his company's perspective, it isn't leaving consumers behind.

"Well, first I would want to try to help everybody understand that the perception may not be exactly correct, at least from our point of view," said Moore. He then went on to explain that "our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world."

As far as Micron is concerned, it's still serving the consumer industry by supplying LPDDR5 DRAM to PC makers like Asus, Dell, and more, with Moorestating that the company is in contact with "every single PC brand out there to supply memory modules." Effectively, Moore is saying that as far as Micron is concerned, consumer DRAM demand is now handled through PC makers rather than directly by the company.

DIY PC makers are still left with fewer DRAM options amid the shortage

The rampocalypse shows no signs of slowing down

While this is accurate, it doesn't help anyone currently swallowing expensive DRAM prices as they upgrade or build their own PC. In the conversation with WCCFTech, Moore explained that given the current AI data center demand for memory, it can't ignore that market.

"The total addressable market (TAM) center business is growing what used to be 30%, 35%, and then to 40%, and now to 50% and 60%," said Moore. Adding to this, Moore also said that extra manufacturing capacity won't help the situation, given how massive AI DRAM demand is right now.

According to a recent study from the International Data Coroporation (IDC), there's no end in sight to the memory shortage, and it will likely "persist well into 2027." However, the PC industry is still riding high right now, with shipments growing 10% year-over-year this past quarter on the heels of Microsoft dropping support for Windows 10.

A previous IDC report stated that the current state of the market "signals the end of an era of cheap, abundant memory and storage." Over the past several months, the price of DRAM has grown significantly, with the industry's biggest manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, allocating the bulk of their resources to AI tech giants.