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If you thought 2026 was a terrible year for the memory shortage, brace for more pain over the next two years. Leading DRAM and NAND supplier Micron says it expects "memory and storage supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in calendar 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026.”
US-based Micron made the statement in prepared remarks for its earnings call, nearly a year after it stopped selling memory directly to consumers to chase AI demand.
The demand has been so high that CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says over 75% of Micron's 2027 output is already locked in. "The majority of our discussions with customers today are already around 2028,” he said. “Customers want assurance now even beyond 2030 time frame.”
Micron expects total industry shipments for DRAM and NAND to grow by about 20% over the next two years, but believes output will fall short of demand as AI companies continue to buy up components to build new data centers.
Although memory suppliers are constructing new manufacturing capacity, also known as semiconductor clean rooms, Micron warns that, “with robust demand trends including new upside requests from customers, we do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance.”
“Overall, [the] supply-demand environment is only getting tighter,” Mehrotra added. “Even with any new clean room space coming up in 2028, we see continuing tight supply conditions because, first of all, clean rooms take a long time to build. Even after they’re built, even after the first wafer output, production only ramps up gradually in the clean room; that’s just the nature of what it takes to bring up production.”
The company plans to increase spending on DRAM manufacturing next year. But there are signs Micron has been raising prices too, at least for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is used in AI chips. “Our prices for HBM were negotiated with our customers last year, and we mentioned that now, for 2027, a large part of the volume is already sold out for 2027 for HBM, and the prices are much higher than 2026 prices,” Mehrotra noted.
It’s possible the memory shortage could persist into 2030, according to an executive at another major supplier, SK Hynix. In the meantime, PC makers and electronics vendors continue to raise prices. On Thursday, the small computer board maker Raspberry Pi announced yet another price hike, "to keep up with the cost of production," boosting the 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 by $12.50, to $67.50 and $77.50, respectively.
About Our Expert
I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.
Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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