Memory shortage expected to hike the price of your next phone

AI data centers require a lot of memory components to power tools like Gemini and ChatGPT, and construction of new data centers continues at a brisk pace. Exacerbating the price effects of newly increased demand, AI providers are seemingly able and willing to outbid consumer electronics manufacturers to secure their share of the limited RAM and storage being manufactured, driving prices higher still.

Phone prices have generally held steady for the past few years — the Galaxy S21, S22, S23, S24, and S25 series, for example, all started at $799.99 ($200 less than the launch price of 2020’s Galaxy S20). Rising costs for consumers were inevitable, though given the large-scale societal investment in AI hasn’t increased the average worker’s take-home pay, the coming price hikes will be especially hard to stomach for many buyers.