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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview with YouTuber Cheeky Pint that it is 'quite terrible' for people to keep large amounts of DRAM sitting idle in personal computers, arguing memory should be maximized in the cloud given the current supply shortage. He made the comment while discussing local AI inference, where models run directly on a user's device rather than in data centers.
Microsoft is encouraging owners of unused Xbox consoles to trade them in through Best Buy rather than let them sit idle. The push comes alongside Microsoft's own trade-in and refurbished-console programs, but this effort specifically highlights Best Buy's retail network.
On Intel's latest earnings call, CEO Lip-Bu Tan and CFO David Zinsner said demand for the company's low-cost Wildcat Lake processors is exceeding supply, with the chips now sold out. Zinsner attributed the surge partly to PC makers' focus on cost-optimized designs amid rising memory and component prices, and said he does not expect the broader RAM shortage to ease in 2027.
Apple has raised the MacBook Neo's Education Store starting price to $649, a $50 increase, after an earlier $100 bump in June. The entry configuration still includes 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM but lacks Touch ID, and the student discount off the regular $699 price is now only $50 instead of the previous $100.
A shortage of computer RAM, informally dubbed 'RAMageddon,' is being driven in part by AI data centers consuming large quantities of memory chips. The shortage is pushing up prices for consumers and businesses that rely on RAM for computers and other devices.
Samsung raised prices across its entire Galaxy A lineup for the second time this week, with the A17 5G rising from $200 to $270, the A27 5G to $380, the A37 5G to $490, and the A57 5G to $600. Google increased the Pixel 10a's price by $100, from $499 to $599 in the US, with an even steeper jump in Canada from $679 to $849.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said demand will outstrip supply for DRAM and NAND through 2027 and 2028, even tighter than in 2026, with most of next year's capacity already sold. Despite planned shipment growth in the low-to-mid 20% range, the company says it has no visibility into when supply and demand will balance, while forecasting record fiscal-quarter revenue of $61.5 billion and an 86.25% gross margin.
During its FY2026 earnings call, Micron said RAM and NAND shortages will intensify through 2027 and 2028, with CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stating demand will keep outpacing supply despite planned shipment growth in the low-to-mid 20% range. The company also guided for record FQ1 revenue of $61.5 billion and an 86.25% gross margin, implying over $53 billion in gross profit and projected EPS of $38.15 per share.
Micron reported that its DRAM revenue climbed 343% compared with the same period last year, driven by rising memory prices and strong demand. The company is the only U.S.-based manufacturer of high-bandwidth memory, a chip type increasingly used in AI systems.
CNET's annual holiday shopping survey found that 73% of holiday shoppers intend to buy tech products or services this season, budgeting an average of $808 — $123 less than last year. The survey also found 32% of respondents plan to start shopping before November, 27% plan to wait for sales, and 84% expect frustrations such as misleading discounts, quick sellouts and inflated baseline prices.
Acer CEO Jason Chen told DigiTimes that RAM-driven PC price increases could start reversing by the end of 2027, a far shorter timeline than rival memory executives have forecast. He argues that supply of most RAM and SSD types has already caught up with demand, with real shortages now confined to high-end components like top-tier DDR5 modules and certain CPUs.
Plaion has delayed its hardware-accurate remake of SNK's NeoGeo AES console by roughly 10 months, now targeting a September 16, 2027 launch. The company cites an AI-fueled memory chip shortage alongside stronger-than-anticipated consumer demand as the reasons for the pushback. The AES+ is built to replicate the original system at the hardware level using dedicated ASIC chips rather than emulation, with MiSTER developer Jotego on the team.