Supply shortages and big price increases for RAM and storage have been a major sticking point for enthusiasts and PC builders in recent months. And while we haven’t yet seen massive price increases for memory-dependent products like pre-built laptop PCs, smartphones and graphics cards, most companies expect that to change this year if shortages continue.
Meanwhile, memory makers are capitalizing on high demand and high prices to turn record profits.
In revenue guidance released this week, Samsung Electronics predicted it would earn between 19.9 and 20.1 trillion Korean won (about $13.8 billion USD) in operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with only 6.49 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Of course, Samsung is more than just a memory business, but its fortunes often rise and fall with its memory division; Samsung’s profits were falling dramatically in 2023, partly due to over supply Its memory division lost billions of dollars because of the failure.
Less-diversified companies that primarily make memory have also been making money recently. SK Hynix recorded its “highest quarterly performance” with operating profit of 11.38 trillion Korean won (about $7.8 billion) in the third quarter of 2025, up from 7.03 trillion won in the third quarter of 2024, and the operating margin increased from 40 percent to 47 percent. SK Hynix credits “expanding investments in AI infrastructure” and “increasing demand for AI servers” for its performance.
Micron – which recently decided to exit the consumer RAM and storage markets but is still selling its products to other businesses – also reported a big increase in year-over-year net income, from $1.87 billion in Q1 2025 to $5.24 billion in Q1 2026. This generated the company’s “highest free cash flow ever.”
“The company’s total revenue, DRAM and NAND revenue, as well as HBM and data center revenue and revenue in each of our business units also reached new records [in fiscal Q1]”wrote Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.
Why is RAM so expensive right now?
Reading these upbeat earnings reports and forecasts will come as a relief to those trying to build or upgrade a PC who have seen the price of a 32GB kit of DDR5-6000 jump from $80 in August 2025 to $340 today. And if the current AI boom continues, it is unlikely to improve in the near term.
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