May 4, 2026
As the world scrambles to scale its infrastructure to match the unfathomably rapid evolution (1) of artificial intelligence, even the top names in the tech sector are grappling with ballooning costs for one key component of the devices we rely on for daily living: RAM.
We are now in the midst of what is being called a "RAMageddon" (2) — a foreboding term for the precipice that makers of consumer technology now find themselves on.
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RAM, which stands for random access memory, is what enables users to run programs on their laptops or smartphones, offering the information required for these processes in nanoseconds. It is, in simple terms, the short-term memory of your computer's brain, which gets wiped after each session of use.
AI applications have proven to be the biggest RAM hogs (3); not just on our individual devices, but behind the scenes at the hubs that fuel these apps. AI's demand for RAM has gone through the roof as data centres proliferate, all of them requiring immense amounts of not just electricity and water (4), but lightning-fast, uber-efficient processing power fueled by RAM chips.
The resulting chip shortage and multi-fold increase (5) in their prices has brought many companies to a turning point, having to choose between dedicating RAM chips to AI ventures or to customer-facing products — or, absorbing the escalating expenses of trying to do both.
Apple CEO points to "significantly higher memory costs"
In the world of consumer tech, there is no corporation as ubiquitous (6) as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
But even Apple CEO Tim Cook recently flagged memory prices as a key hindrance to future revenue during the company's Q2 2026 earnings call last week (7).
Cook and his team, while lauding the quarter's financial and other successes, mentioned some "supply constraints" that analysts pressed them on during the question period.
Though the Apple heads noted that the largest constraint at present is not memory, but the limited availability of certain other chip components amid zealous demand for products like the Mac Mini and MacStudio — which, fittingly, they called "amazing platforms for AI and Agentic tools" that are particularly successful for this reason. They did however expand further on the growing issue of memory limitations.
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"In the December quarter, we really had minimal impact due to memory, and you can see that in the gross margin results. We said it would be a bit more in the March quarter, and we did see higher memory costs in the March quarter, [which] were partially offset by benefits from carry-in inventory," said Cook, who was the one to clarify that memory was the topic the conversation had been dancing around.
"For the June quarter…we expect significantly higher memory costs. They are also partly offset by the benefit of carry-in inventory. But I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business. And we'll continue to evaluate this."
This admission goes against a long-held belief — actually considered an empirical law (8) — that computing power should get less expensive as it grows exponentially. But, AI has managed to blow that assumption (and many others (9)) out of the water as it mushrooms at such an accelerating pace that it has become difficult to measure.
On the call, Apple's execs added that they will be considering "a range of options" for dealing with the new realities of memory (7). With incoming CEO John Ternus taking the reins in September, and planning to invest more profits into innovation (10), we will have to wait and see what this looks like.
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Pricier RAM means pricier products — amid other costs of AI
Unfortunately, it's not just Apple and other industry behemoths that will have to shell out more for memory in the shadow of AI's civilization-changing growth and subsequent logistical bottlenecks: our household electronics, especially laptops (11), are going to get significantly more expensive and harder to upgrade.
And while we may be all too familiar (12) with AI's other costs (13), with so many of us complicit in it becoming the fastest-spreading technology in human history (14), we are but an Ouroboros eating its own tail as prioritization of tech (15) shapes the new frontier.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
RBC Capital Markets (1); The Week (2); Ars Technica (3); The Conversation (4); Reuters (5); BBC (6); Seeking Alpha (7); The University of Law (8); YouTube (9),(15); Bloomberg (10); PCMag (11); The Wall Street Journal (12); The Walrus (13); Microsoft (14)
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter with Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with years in the journalism industry at outlets such as blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's participated in writing residencies at the Banff Centre and Writing Workshops Paris. With 33 countries visited, she finds travel to be one of her greatest inspirations.
