Today’s PCs cost more than they ever did. While you can thank President Donald Trump’s obsession with tariffs for the most recent price spikes, there are even more headaches on the way. The next wave of PCs coming in 2026 may be even more expensive as countries shoulder-check each other for AI and compute dominance. As always, shit rolls downhill, and all of us sitting at the bottom can’t help but get sullied.
Trump’s nonsensical tariffs have only intensified the budding trade war between China and the U.S. The PC market is caught in the middle. China could be making moves to restrain the export of rare-earth elements. The Financial Times reported China’s commerce ministry is requiring foreign companies to get approval to export magnets or other technologies containing small amounts of rare-earth elements mined in the country. These would include elements used in magnets necessary for creating HDDs. Other elements used when creating the LED backlights in LCD panels could also be restricted. China is responding to similar rules set by the U.S. to block semiconductors, especially AI training chips, from going to other countries.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, most of the world’s rare earth elements come from Chinese mines. The U.S. can only claim 11.5% of global output. We already have an idea of what chips Intel and Qualcomm are bringing to the table for the next generation of personal computers slated to arrive in 2026. While Intel has been talking up its plans for the U.S.-based chip manufacturing, acquiring the materials for making those chips is an international endeavor. Analysts have said that the restrictions on some rare earth materials will certainly impact the production of memory chips.
The race for AI is making PC parts cost more
That’s a bad sign, as memory is already experiencing price hikes. Last week, Tom’s Hardware reported how SSDs, DRAM, and HDDs were being swallowed up by the ballooning demand for AI data centers. This memory shortage has the potential to spike prices for PC parts in the near future. It won’t just impact those planning to build their new desktop, it could push prices of all consumer-end PCs even higher than they are now. Tom’s Hardware points to data center operations like OpenAI’s Stargate demanding hundreds of thousands more DRAM wafers per month, equalling 40% of global DRAM output. And that’s just one project. Meta, Microsoft, and many other major tech companies are building up AI data centers all over the U.S. and the world. Small town communities are desperately trying to fight back against these companies leeching off their electrical grid and water infrastructure.
It’s the smaller companies that will see the impact first. This month, Raspberry Pi—which makes small single-board computers—pointed to rising memory prices for its $5 to $10 increase on 4GB and 8GB products. Now, imagine those $50 to $100 SBCs scaled up to the cost of modern PCs demanding 16 to 32GB of RAM on the low end. Modern laptops have been increasing the amount of both RAM and storage in response to AI’s computing demands. Apple, for instance, finally made 16GB of RAM standard in its M4 MacBook Air models, mostly to help it process current and future Apple Intelligence features.
Remember how crypto led to a massive GPU shortage?
If you’re looking for a similar situation, cast your gaze back a few years during the height of the covid-19 pandemic, when crypto mining became such a big industry, it led to a mass shortage of graphics cards the world over. Prices for PC parts spiked, and scalpers made the reseller market a living hell. The big daddy of GPUs, Nvidia, went as far as to rerelease older graphics cards to board partners just so they could launch new PCs. Country after country started cracking down on crypto miners’ hoarding of electricity and water to fuel their hunt for Bitcoin. But now, in the age of AI, similar shortages may be coming for more than just GPUs.
Will PC makers explain to consumers why their laptops and computers cost more than they did in 2025? Not likely, no. The arrival of Trump’s tariffs in April this year left companies scrambling. Laptop makers like Asus and Lenovo quietly raised prices on multiple new products, including their Lenovo Legion Go S and ROG Ally X, so they now cost $50 to $100 more than their original proposed price point. Handhelds with current higher-end chips, the $1,350 Legion Go 2 and $1,000 ROG Xbox Ally X, are now far more expensive than their past models. Buying anything now means accepting higher prices. Waiting on your hands could mean you end up paying even more.