DRAM and NAND price increases hit 58-75% in Q2 2026 due to AI demand

According to the latest TrendForce report, DRAM prices are projected to rise by 58–63% in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the previous quarter, while NAND Flash costs will increase by 70–75%. This follows a sharp spike in the first quarter, when DRAM saw a record 90–95% surge. In practice, DRAM growth rates have slightly slowed, whereas the NAND market has accelerated relative to the prior quarter.

The main driver remains the reallocation of production capacity toward AI solutions. DRAM manufacturers are actively shifting focus to the AI segment, while NAND output is increasingly oriented toward enterprise solid-state drives. Cloud providers are exacerbating the situation by pre-purchasing significant portions of supply through long-term contracts. No substantial capacity expansion is expected at least until the end of 2027.

Primary demand comes from the server segment: North American cloud companies are aggressively expanding infrastructure for AI tasks and procuring high-performance memory modules in large volumes. Manufacturers, in turn, prefer working with more profitable enterprise orders and are securing long-term agreements with key clients.

Against this backdrop, demand for memory in personal computers is declining, yet prices remain high. Suppliers are reducing shipments to PC makers, forcing them to buy components at elevated costs. The situation is even tighter in the NAND segment: demand for enterprise SSDs persists, and production resources continue flowing toward generative AI projects.

Buyers of client storage are building up inventories in advance, fearing further shortages. The shortage is particularly acute in the eMMC and UFS segments, which manufacturers consider low-priority due to slim margins. Despite technological advances like QLC adoption, NAND production volume growth remains limited, and PC and smartphone makers are even reducing built-in memory to control expenses.