Why Laptop Prices Are Climbing in Late 2026, and Why It's Not Slowing Down Soon

If you've priced out a new laptop in the past few months and the number looked higher than you remembered, that's not just inflation. A global shortage of DRAM (the memory chips used for RAM) and NAND flash (used in SSDs) has been driving component costs up sharply through 2026, and major laptop makers including Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, and ASUS have all warned of price increases as a result.

The root cause is demand from AI data centers. Memory manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron together control the vast majority of global DRAM production, and all three have shifted significant manufacturing capacity toward high-bandwidth memory used in AI server chips, which carries far higher profit margins than standard consumer RAM. That reallocation, combined with underinvestment in new production capacity during an industry downturn a few years ago, has created a supply gap that consumer electronics are now absorbing.

The numbers involved are steep. Industry tracker TrendForce has reported DRAM contract prices rising roughly 90 to 95% quarter-over-quarter earlier in 2026, and market analysts have projected some memory prices could climb further before the year is out. HP's CEO said during an earnings call that memory now accounts for 15 to 18% of the cost of producing a typical PC, roughly double what it was a year earlier.

Manufacturers are responding in two ways: raising prices outright, or quietly reducing specs to hold a familiar price point, sometimes called shrinkflation in this context. Industry analysts have warned that a laptop selling at the same $600 price tag in 2026 as in 2025 might now ship with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB, or a dimmer screen, to protect the sticker price.

For anyone shopping for a laptop in the near term, the practical takeaway from several industry analysts is the same: if you need a new machine soon and can afford it, buying sooner rather than waiting is the safer bet. Most forecasts point to memory prices stabilizing sometime in 2027 at the earliest, and some memory makers have suggested it could stretch further out.

“A laptop selling at the same $600 price tag in 2026 as in 2025 might now ship with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB.”