China - January 21, 2026 Storyline AI-driven global memory shortage fuels soaring RAM prices in China The price of random-access memory, or RAM, has been going up in recent months in China, a trend that's been happening all over the world. With LLM apps like Chat GPT and Gemini increasing their demand for RAM, the three global manufacturers of RAM hardware- Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron- are getting stretched thin. Supplies are low or non-existent with at least one of the firms ending its consumer grade RAM production because its less profitable. The result has been sky-high prices for the RAM that does remain on the market. At an electronics mall in Shanghai, 16GigaBites of RAM sold for about 43 U.S. dollars last year but now it's going for over 150. Consumer: "I was shocked by the price. It was around 280 U.S. dollars, but now it's going up to over 850 U.S. dollars. I can't afford it." A thousand kilometers away at a shop in southwest China's Guizhou Province, it's a similar scene, with the prices of fourth and fifth generation double data rate RAM increasing by 100 percent since last summer. Salesperson: "Like 16GB DDR4 is over 85 U.S. dollars, but DDR5 is over 140 U.S. dollars." Experts predict that the three global RAM hardware manufacturing companies will continue to feel the pinch of demand for the long term, meaning prices for consumer RAM are expected to stay high this year. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]