• Home
• Technology

 The global race for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has driven up the prices of electronic goods such as laptops and smartphones, with growing warnings that the impact could soon extend to car prices amid an escalating shortage of memory chips used to power these devices.

The Chief Financial Officer of Samsung Electronics stated that the shortage of memory chips, essential for digital data storage, is expected to worsen throughout 2027, with supply constraints likely persisting into 2028.

This looming crisis has been dubbed "RAMageddon," in reference to Random Access Memory (RAM) chips. The shortage is primarily driven by chipmakers shifting their production lines toward more lucrative High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips, which are experiencing massive, unprecedented demand for training and running complex AI applications.

Electronics Stores Face Price Shocks

The ripple effects are already being felt on the retail level. Wade Lam, manager of the N-Technology Services store at the Wanchai Computer Centre in Hong Kong, noted that the shop is actively providing information to clarify the situation for customers who "have no idea what happened" to the soaring prices.