Memory-makers tell investors that current RAM market conditions will continue through at least 2028 as most of their stock is already allocated.
RAM shortages are expected to last through 2028, Samsung and Micron executives have reiterated. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra tells investors in a Q4'26 earnings call that the "supply-demand environment is only getting tighter."
These trends could ensure that the next-gen PlayStation 6 and Project Helix Xbox device family are more expensive than they otherwise would have been without these market disruptions.
- Read more: Micron has signed agreements locking in record-high memory prices with major customers through 2030
- Read more: An autonomous car could use 300GB of RAM, Micron CEO predicts, with 'robust long-term growth in automotive memory demand'
- Read more: China's CXMT is on track to nearly match Micron's DRAM production capacity by the end of 2026
The Micron CEO continues, explaining that boosting production is a slower process, and that creating chips on multiple nodes will tie up factories:
"Even after they are built, even after first wafer output, production ramps up only gradually in the clean rooms, That's just the nature of what it takes to bring up production, and with HBM going from 3E to a greater mix of 4 and 4E, and with the trade ratio that exists, that ... creates headwinds with respect to supply growth. Node transitions of the future give less productivity gain per wafer as well."
Things are complicated because two different types of memory are built using the same materials: silicon wafers. DRAM and the more-complicated HBM are different--one is more expensive and higher-grade-- but they require the same materials to produce. High-bandwidth memory is more profitable but it takes more materials to create, as per Wikipedia:
"HBM requires significantly more silicon and wafer area than standard memory. For example, Micron has noted a roughly 3-to-1 conversion ratio (HBM3E needing about three times the wafer area of DDR5 to produce an equivalent amount of bits)."
Samsung executive VP President Kim Taewoo reiterates that making more HBM chips could impact the supply of DRAM.
HBM is also expected to account for 30% of total memory production in 2027.
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How could the RAM shortage affect the hardware costs of Sony’s PlayStation 6 and Microsoft’s Project Helix?
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This could mean that the 10th console generation will indeed be the most expensive hardware lineup in history as a result of inflated DRAM prices. Neither Sony nor Microsoft have discussed pricing, but the latter did say that it "needs help" to launch Project Helix, possibly indicating that OEMs like ASUS will be involved.
