The global RAM crisis is still a burden for many, and renowned memory maker Micron has now hinted that the skyrocketing prices could remain at its all-time high for the years to come.
Micron Hints at High RAM Prices For Years
In its third-quarter earnings report, Micron revealed that it had signed 16 strategic customer agreements, locking in floor and ceiling prices for its memory supply over five-year stretches.
The scale of this commitment suggests that RAM prices, which have already climbed significantly, could remain elevated for a long stretch of time.
Micron sits alongside Samsung and SK Hynix as one of the three major memory manufacturers in the world, with both competitors based in Korea and Samsung holding the title of largest overall producer. Micron, on the other hand, is based in the United States and has fully shifted toward business-to-business production after retiring its Crucial brand.
Although the company already shut down its Crucial consumer RAM brand, its decision to commit production towarddata centers for the foreseeable future suggests PC RAM could stay expensive and difficult to source for quite a while.
Here's When Micron Expects It Will Improve
According to PCGamesN, Micron CEO, president, and chairman Sanjay Mehrotra addressed the situation directly during the company's earnings call.
"Our customers are recognizing that supply shortages in memory and storage will take considerable time to improve," Mehrotra said.
He added that the company does not currently have visibility into when supply will be able to catch up with rising demand, even as the industry expects gradual improvement starting in 2028.
That 2028 timeline lines up with broader industry expectations, though Mehrotra was careful to note that improvement does not mean prices will simply return to where they once were.
Micron and its competitors are actively building new chip manufacturing facilities and exploring ways to boost production capacity in the meantime.
Global RAM Shortage's Drastic Effects
Despite those efforts, Mehrotra explained that supply growth remains structurally limited in its ability to keep pace with industry demand, even with the company's ongoing push to expand output.
How this situation actually unfolds over the next few years depends on several factors, including whether manufacturers can scale production fast enough, whether current AI-driven demand eventually eases, and whether the industry shifts away from centralized data centers toward more localized AI processing.
Still, the expectations for now center on high RAM prices and other components because of this global crisis and shortage, with the relief to arrive ways down the road, but it does not guarantee the stabilization of its pricing.
