The tech press has been lit up like Chernobyl reactor #4 for months about shortages in memory, solid-state drives, and hard drives. The shortages are driven by explosive AI demand, and the latest report says that up to 70 percent of the memory produced worldwide in 2026 will be consumed by data centers. However, those specific topics have yet to be part of the global zeitgeist. That's quickly changing, as evidenced by a Wall Street Journal article (WSJ) describing just how dire the situation is, and how the fallout from the RAM shortage is set to irradiate several markets not directly linked to computing.
The WSJ details how the exponential rise in memory is all but guaranteed to hit the automotive sector, TVs, and consumer electronics, among many others. The publication goes as far as comparing the automobile situation to the production delays experienced during Covid, an event nobody has fond memories of.
