It's no secret that the DRAM and memory crisis is well and truly here, as seen with the dramatic price increases for products like DDR5 memory. According to a new report (via TrendForce), memory shortages and supply squeezes are about to hit products from two of the biggest names in consumer and commercial PC products: Dell and Lenovo.

The report highlights recent comments Dell COO Jeff Clarke made to Bloomberg in November, in which he said he's "never seen memory-chip costs rise this fast." And with that, Dell has apparently issued a price-hike alert to its customers, indicating that prices will increase by "at least" 15-20% as soon as next week or mid-December 2025.
In addition, Lenovo has started communicating with its customers and notifying them of upcoming price increases that will take effect in early 2026. According to the report, Lenovo is telling its customers that existing quotes and prices will expire on January 1, 2026, due to memory shortages and the rapidly growing AI and cloud markets. Lenovo hasn't specified a figure like Dell's 15-20%, but it's expected that it will be in a similar region.
- Read more: Oh great: HDD prices surge to highest point in 2 years with demand from China and the US
- Read more: Return of 4GB RAM in smartphones by 2026 amidst DRAM crisis, microSD slots make a comeback
- Read more: AMD will reportedly increase the price of 8GB Radeon GPUs by $20 and 16GB GPUs by $40
Lenovo's notification isn't merely a warning about price increases; it also notes that the race to deploy AI systems and infrastructure will keep memory prices soaring, and that customers should place orders for new hardware now at current prices to avoid paying substantially more in a few months. The 15-20% figure from Dell is purely memory-related, as memory chips comprise around 15% of a PC's cost.
In its report, TrendForce adds that the memory crisis will see the biggest names in the PC space, like Dell, Lenovo, HP, and others, now "reportedly rethinking their 2026 product roadmaps," leading to declines in notebook and other shipments in 2026.




