AI Boom Drives Up PC Prices as Memory Chip Costs Surge

The race for AI dominance is fueling unprecedented demand for memory chips, squeezing supplies and pushing up prices for high-end PCs.

Published on Feb. 7, 2026

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

The booming demand for artificial intelligence is driving up the cost of memory chips, a critical component in high-performance PCs. As tech giants like OpenAI, Meta, and Google build massive data centers to power their AI models, they are consuming vast quantities of memory chips, causing shortages and price spikes that are being passed on to consumers. This is impacting companies like Falcon Northwest that build custom gaming PCs, forcing them to raise prices by thousands of dollars. The memory chip crunch is the latest ripple effect from the AI frenzy, which has already lifted the fortunes of chip makers like Nvidia. Experts predict the higher memory chip costs could raise the price of a typical PC by 23% by this fall.

Why it matters

The memory chip shortage highlights the strategic importance of this commodity in the tech industry, which has led to past trade wars. As AI becomes a top priority for tech giants, their insatiable demand for memory chips is disrupting the broader PC and consumer electronics markets, potentially making high-end computers and other devices less affordable for many consumers.

The details

Kelt Reeves, the founder of custom PC maker Falcon Northwest, has seen the cost of memory chips triple since last summer, forcing him to raise the price of some of his high-end gaming rigs from around $5,800 to over $7,000. This is not a temporary blip, as AI companies are building massive data centers that are consuming memory chips at an unprecedented rate, leaving less supply for the consumer PC market. Chip makers like Micron are prioritizing their 'larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments' like AI over their traditional consumer business.

  • In early September 2022, a typical PC RAM kit sold for around $105.
  • By the end of December 2022, that same RAM kit was priced at $250.

The players

Falcon Northwest

A company that has sold high-end personal computers for 34 years, catering to gamers and others willing to pay premium prices for extreme performance.

Kelt Reeves

The 55-year-old founder of Falcon Northwest, who has been grappling with a tripling of memory chip costs since last summer.

Micron Technology

The sole U.S. supplier of memory chips, which is discontinuing its direct-to-consumer Crucial business to focus on 'larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments' like AI.

Manish Bhatia

Micron's executive vice president of global operations, who says the company's customers are only receiving half to two-thirds of the memory they want to buy.

Nvidia

A leading chip company that has been setting many hardware trends, including the use of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks to achieve faster data transfers for its AI processors.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“This isn't a consumer-driven bubble. Nobody is expecting this to be a quick blip that's going to be over with.”

— Kelt Reeves, Founder, Falcon Northwest (modbee.com)

“The memory appetite for AI is so much larger. It's utterly different than all the computing we did before.”

— Michael Stewart, Managing Partner, Microsoft Venture Capital Fund M12 (modbee.com)

“Because our demand is so high, every factory, every HBM supplier is gearing up. The world would need more chip factories.”

— Jensen Huang, CEO, Nvidia (modbee.com)

What’s next

Micron is investing heavily in new chip factories, including two new facilities in Boise and a $100 billion project near Syracuse, New York. However, the first of these new factories will not come online until mid-2027, so the memory chip shortage is expected to persist in the meantime.

The takeaway

The AI boom has created an unprecedented demand for memory chips, disrupting the broader PC and consumer electronics markets. This highlights the strategic importance of memory chips and the need for more investment in chip manufacturing capacity to keep up with the insatiable appetite of AI technologies.