Micron says it's not to blame for its high memory prices: 'There's just not enough supply to go around'

Signage outside the Micron offices in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. — (Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Another day, another reminder that we're in the midst of a memory crisis, this time from Micron. This time, though, the company is responding directly to the idea that memory manufacturers like itself are to blame for rising consumer memory prices. Tech publication Wccftech asked Micron's VP of Marketing, Mobile and Client Business Unit, Christopher Moore, about this.

Moore said: "Our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world. We're just doing it through different channels … What's going on right now is that the TAM [total addressable market] and data center is growing just absolutely tremendously. And we want to make sure that, as a company, we help fulfill that TAM as well."

"This is not a Micron issue, it's an industry issue, where us and our peers or our competitors are all rushing to service these segments as much as we can, and there's just not enough supply to go around … Memory manufacturers are scrambling to build newer production lines, yet constraints of the process eventually forces them to push the timelines ahead by several quarters, which means that for the average consumer, the DRAM shortages could persist for quite some time now, or at least until the AI demand starts to fade away."

In case you've been living under a blissfully unaware rock—and honestly, can I join you?—we're in an AI-induced memory shortage right now. The seemingly ever-inflating and money-juggling bubble that is the market of AI hardware, software, and ecosystems requires a heck of a lot of memory, so memory makers like Micron have started to churn out DRAM for all those AI datacentres.

A photo of a 128 GB Crucial DDR5-6400 CUDIMM kit. — (Image credit: Future)

For consumers such as PC gamers, the main effect we've seen so far is rapidly climbing prices of RAM and any systems or devices that contain memory. It's hardly a secret, of course, nor is the fact that it looks to continue for quite some time.

In December, RAM manufacturer G.Skill explicitly blamed "high demand from the AI industry", and Goldman Sachs research led industry analyst Jukan to say that "some suppliers see potential for conventional DRAM prices to rise by double-digit percentages (%) quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) throughout every quarter of 2026." Just last week, Samsung recently pointed out that seeing some impacts across different device segments is "inevitable".

Micron has also previously commented on the shortage, too, saying in December that "sustained and strong industry demand, along with supply constraints, are contributing to tight market conditions and we expect these conditions to persist beyond calendar 2026".

So really, I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment behind the line of questioning, or those who are laying the blame solely on memory manufacturers. Although there will be some exceptions, I think most PC hardware consumers know that rising memory prices are due to AI demand, and that, rather than memory manufacturers, is exactly what we're annoyed about.

G,Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR4-6400 2x32GB — (Image credit: Future)

Saying that, though, there would certainly be precedent for such blame, given historical collusion between memory makers and somewhat more recent accusations of the same.

For the most part, though, I haven't got the impression that most consumers are blaming memory companies. In other words, we're annoyed that the demand is there, given how little consumers seem to want what all the copious amounts of spending, energy, and hardware are being put towards.

Of course, one could argue that such annoyance is short-sighted and down to a failure of imagination for all the promises the future holds regarding AI. Which would be in line with what probably every utopian worldly vision has argued about its detractors. But I'm getting all riled up again, and catastrophising might not help, either. In fact, it could do more harm than good, all things considered, so I suppose I'll just keep schtum. Frowny-face.

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Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

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