Memory crisis expected to last until 2031, supply already allocated for 2026

CES 2026 has officially wrapped up, and after spending a week walking around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and ducking in and out of numerous casinos for private meetings with companies, I have gathered my thoughts on what we can expect out of the upcoming year in terms of new technology, road bumps, and what to get excited about.

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The whole week of meetings involved being introduced to new products, but every conversation was plagued by conversations about memory pricing, which is undoubtedly going to be a hurdle consumers will be hit by in 2026. For those who don't know, DRAM pricing is skyrocketing due to AI companies gobbling up the limited supply.

As a result, DRAM has become such a sought-after component that it's causing the pricing of products that require even small amounts of DRAM to increase significantly. For example, Dell's XPS 14, the company's entry-level laptop, has increased its price from last year's model at $1,699 to $2,050 for the latest generation.

• Read more: RAM price increases and shortages have only just started, TeamGroup says
• Read more: DRAM suppliers are the new Santa Claus, HBM is a 'black hole' for DRAM production capacity

What I heard on the ground floor from various system integrators, components manufacturers, and other companies, is memory supply has been tied up for all of 2026, and that shortages could last as long as until 2031.

With supply being allocated for 2026, we can expect prices on memory to stay relatively the same, especially for the first several months of the year. However, as the year continues and supply begins to wane, pricing will begin to worsen before it gets better, according to various sources that requested anonymity.

What about something to get excited about? OLED gaming monitors have received a substantial upgrade this year with new RGB Stripe technology, which significantly reduces the amount of color fringing through an improved sub pixel layout. There is also NVIDIA's G-Sync Pulsar technology, which can change a 360Hz IPS gaming monitor into a display that provides motion clarity experience equivalent to a 1,000Hz refresh panel.