Micron warns RAM squeeze will run into 2028 and prices will climb

Building or upgrading a gaming PC is about to stay expensive for years. Micron, which makes the RAM — the short-term memory chips a computer uses to run games and software — has told investors that shortages could continue well into 2028, and potentially even longer, according to Video Games Chronicle.

Prices will rise. Chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said during Micron's fiscal 2026 earnings call that customers will pay "much higher prices" than they did in 2026. He said Micron has already sold most of the memory it expects to produce next year.

Mehrotra was blunt about the outlook. "In calendar 2027 as well as 2028, we see demand exceeding supply," he said. Industry tightness will be greater in 2027 and in 2028 versus 2026, he added, and the supply-demand environment is only getting tighter. Micron does not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance.

The driver is the data centre. Micron said AI-driven growth in the data centre has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage, leaving less capacity for other buyers. At the time of the earnings report, more than 75% of its output was already committed and its HBM supply — stacked, high-bandwidth memory used in AI hardware — was largely sold out, according to 24/7 Wall St.. In June 2026, the company had already touted US$22 billion in customer deals for memory chips after quarterly results that topped estimates.

For players, this means fewer cheap upgrades. Micron announced on 3 December 2025 its decision to exit the Crucial consumer business, the brand many PC owners know for retail RAM and solid-state drives, according to Micron. The exit covers Crucial-branded products sold through retailers, e-tailers and distributors worldwide. Shipments continued through the consumer channel until the end of fiscal Q2 in February 2026, with warranty service and support to continue.

Micron said it made that change to improve supply and support for larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments. The company will continue to support sales of Micron-branded enterprise products to commercial channel customers globally. It described the Crucial journey as lasting 29 years and said it intends to reduce impact on team members through redeployment into open roles within the company.

New supply will not arrive quickly. Micron plans to bring new factories online in 2028, backed by US$25 billion in planned capital expenditure during the first half of its new financial year. It warned that extra capacity will not immediately improve availability or lower prices.

The longer-term plan is larger. Micron has raised its planned United States investment to more than US$250 billion through 2035, citing surging demand for memory in the AI era, according to Micron. That includes two leading-edge fabrication plants, the highly specialised factories where chips are made, in Boise, Idaho, which the company states will create over 17,000 jobs.

Investors have welcomed the squeeze. Micron reported record fiscal 2026 results and expects an even stronger fiscal 2027, saying Strategic Customer Agreements give it added confidence in the durability of its financial performance. Micron Technology shares rose nearly 16% after it issued an outsized profit forecast attributed to a worldwide memory supply crunch, according to Reuters.

What makes this stand out for game makers is the timing. Consoles, graphics cards, phones and servers all compete for the same underlying memory supply. If that supply stays tight until 2028, hardware costs stay high and the savings are rarely found in the box on the shop shelf.