AI Firms Reportedly Buy Up All 2027 DRAM and HBM Capacity, Deepening RAM Crunch

A Digitimes report, surfaced by TweakTown, claims Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have collectively pre-sold their entire 2027 DRAM and HBM output to AI companies, with no additional supply planned for the year. None of the three manufacturers has confirmed the claim, but if accurate it signals that consumer memory prices — already climbing — have further to rise. Much of the capacity has reportedly been locked up through multi-year purchasing agreements spanning roughly five-year terms, meaning buyers are reserving chips that haven’t been fabricated yet and leaving little slack for the retail market to recover.

The squeeze extends beyond system RAM. NAND flash demand is rising too, and while it hasn’t been fully absorbed thanks to a broader base of suppliers, SSD prices have crept up over the past six months. As one data point, a mainstream 1TB PCIe 4 drive (Western Digital’s SN7100) has gone from about $110 in January to roughly $189, a 52% jump per CamelCamelCamel tracking.

The downstream effects are already visible in finished hardware: the Xbox Series X saw a price increase this month, and Valve’s Steam Machine launched higher than intended, both attributed to memory costs. Barring new fab capacity coming online in the next few years, the report suggests scarcity and elevated pricing will persist as AI infrastructure buildout continues to outbid consumer demand.