Dell says RAM shortages are 'out of control', tells its staff to expect HUGE price hikes

Dell has notified its staff internally that it will be increasing RAM prices massively, as the memory shortage issues are now 'out of control'.

Dell says RAM shortages are 'out of control', tells its staff to expect HUGE price hikes
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Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Dell will raise prices on laptops, desktops, monitors, and NVIDIA AI GPUs starting December 17 due to ongoing global DRAM and SSD shortages. Price hikes range from 10% to 30%, with higher costs for systems featuring 32GB+ RAM and larger storage. Customers are advised to order promptly to avoid increased costs.

Dell will be increasing the price of its laptops and PC systems on December 17, because of the ongoing DRAM shortages.

Dell says RAM shortages are 'out of control', tells its staff to expect HUGE price hikes 11
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In a new report from Business Insider, Dell reportedly told its staff in an internal message on December 9 that it will be hiking the price of its systems starting on December 17.

There is an internal list of the upcoming price changes sent to staff, with price hikes for Dell's commercial business -- sales to corporate clients, not individual customers -- but Dell's commercial business accounts for around 85% of its annual revenue in the Client Solutions Group (CSG), the division that sells Dell laptops and PCs, according to its latest annual results.

We all know there's an industry-wide shortage of DRAM -- RAM and SSDs -- that are seeing prices spiral out of control, and it's not just Dell. It was just yesterday we reported that Framework is increasing its prices by up to 50% for RAM upgrades, but it is hitting Dell's competitors like Lenovo and HP, as well as any other system integrator (SI).

A Dell spokesperson told Business Insider that "like others in the industry, Dell takes targeted price action, when necessary, while maintaining supply continuity and its commitment to customer value. Our supply chain is resilient and globally diverse. It's designed to offer the needed flexibility when navigating macroeconomic, regulatory and trade dynamics".

As for what to expect for Dell's price increases next week, it'll depend on what configuration you decide to buy. On the RAM side of things, that'll depend on whether you're after a laptop or desktop PC system with 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or more RAM... the more RAM (128GB+) is going to cost you considerably more.

32GB of RAM inside of a Dell Pro or Dell Pro Max laptop or desktop will cost you between $130 and $230 more, while if you're after 128GB of RAM that's going to cost you $520 or $765 more per system. A laptop from Dell with 1TB of storage is going to cost you between $55 and $135 more starting next week.

An employee with Dell who works in sales said that the percentage increase would be between 10% and 30% depending on the contract. It's also not just regular RAM and SSDs inside of Dell's systems that will cost more, but also monitors and NVIDIA Blackwell AI GPUs.

Dell's Pro 55 Plus 4K Monitor costs $1349.99 right now, but it will be $150 more expensive next week, while AI laptops powered by the NVIDIA RTX PRO 500 Blackwell GPU with 6GB of GDDR7 will cost $66 more, while a 24GB GPU will cost $530 more.

The sales employee at Dell added: "it's impacting everyone, and there's no way around it currently, so customers will just have to pay more if they want the products".

Another thing to note is that Dell warned "ordering today for future delivery DOES NOT lock in current pricing". The company added that acting now would help customers stay ahead of "significant anticipated memory increase".