Memory executives expect RAM shortage to continue through 2028

Executives at Micron and Samsung warn that memory shortages will persist through at least 2028 as AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DRAM outstrips manufacturing capacity. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says about 75% of the company's 2027 memory output is already committed, HBM demand now outpaces DRAM, and prices for 2027 HBM are substantially higher than in 2026. Samsung projects HBM will consume nearly 30% of DRAM wafer capacity in 2027 (up from ~20% this year), squeezing the pool of DRAM available for consumer devices. Micron plans new clean rooms in 2028, but production ramps slowly and future node transitions are delivering smaller per-wafer productivity gains.

The capacity shift toward AI and data-center customers has concrete consumer impacts: Micron’s Crucial brand stopped selling consumer RAM in 2025, prebuilt PCs and OEM configurations are showing higher prices and lower RAM options, and other gadgets from phones to consoles are seeing cost pressure. Executives tie the surge to larger models, bigger context windows, more concurrent workloads and agent-style deployments that demand greater memory capacity and higher-performance memory, leaving uncertainty about when consumer supplies will normalize.