Summary

  • Samsung, SK hynix, and Sandisk reportedly plan to double NAND prices in 2026, increasing the cost of SSDs.
  • SSD prices are already rising at retailers — buy now before supplier hikes push costs higher.
  • GPU launches have been delayed as DRAM/VRAM stock prioritizes AI data centers over PCs.

The ongoing memory crisis continues to begin to make its way to other PC components. According to a recent report from Digitimes, SSDs are about to get hit with a substantial cost increase.

According to the report, three of the biggest players in the NAND chip space — Samsung, SK hynix, and Sandisk — are planning to double their prices amid the ongoing RAMpocalypse. Digitimes goes on to say that Samsung plans to more than double the cost of its NAND chips in the first quater of 2026, "amid tightening supply and surging demand driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence applications."

On the other hand, "SK Hynix has implemented NAND price increases of a similar magnitude, while Sandisk has previously been reported to be planning a 100% NAND price hike in 2026," says the publication's report. With this in mind, it's not surprising that Samsung recently posted extremely strong financial results, with revenue up by 22% to $65 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Profits during the same period also doubled to just under $14 billion.

👁 A render of an AMD GPU
AMD is reportedly pausing new GPU launches until 2027

It's going to be awhile before we see new graphics cards from the industry's second biggest graphics card maker.

The memory crisis shows no signs of slowing down

New AMD and Nvidia GPUs have reportedly been delayed

What's notable about Digitimes report is that the retail cost of SSDs has already increased substantially. This could be anticipation of an impending supplier price increase, or PC hardware retailers trying to make more profit and blaming it on the memory crisis. Either way, if you're planning to pick up a new SSD, buying it as soon as possible is a smart move as costs are likely to increase substantially.

In other memory shortage and GPU-related news, David McAfee, AMD's Vice President of Ryzen, recently told Gizmodo that his company wants to keep its GPU prices down amid the ongoing memory shortage, though he also emphasized that he can't predict where memory prices will go next, hinting that prices could still shift. Adding to this, a recent report indicated that AMD won't launch new GPUs until 2027. There are also reports that GPU giant Nvidia will slash overall GPU production by as much as 40% in 2026 due to the VRAM shortage.

Over the past few 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 data centers instead of PC manufacturers and consumers. In SK hynix's case, the company completely killed off its consumer DRAM brand Crucial.