Micron says RAM squeeze runs to 2028 as AI datacentres take supply
Anyone hoping PC memory prices will calm down soon got bad news. Micron has already sold most of next year's production, and it told investors on its earnings call that tight supply will run on.
Chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said demand would keep outstripping supply through 2027 and into 2028. He warned customers to brace for prices well above what they paid in 2026, according to Eurogamer.
The squeeze favours datacentres over desktops. Most of Micron's capacity is booked for high-bandwidth memory, a stacked type of chip built to feed AI accelerators, leaving very little dedicated to the consumer-grade memory used in gaming PCs and other devices.
Micron described the industry's supply-demand balance as "only getting tighter". Executives said the company does not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance.
The numbers explain why. Micron's cloud memory unit posted an 83 per cent gross margin in the fourth quarter, up from 59 per cent a year earlier. Its core datacentre business hit 90 per cent, up from 41 per cent a year earlier, while datacentre SSD sales almost hit $10 billion for the quarter, over 1,000 per cent higher year-on-year.
There is no quick fix coming from new plants. Micron plans to bring new factories online in 2028, backed by US$25 billion in planned capital spending for the first half of its new financial year. Executives cautioned that extra capacity will not bring immediate relief on price or availability.
Micron also highlighted work with Nvidia on NV-HBM, described as the industry's first custom HBM4E implementation for next-generation graphics processors and NVLink Fusion platforms. That is the same class of high-end memory pipeline that is now absorbing factory space once used for standard DRAM.
The backdrop is a record run. Micron delivered record fiscal 2026 results and said it expects fiscal 2027 to be even stronger, with rising investment in technology, products and manufacturing, according to Micron Investor Relations. It had earlier reported record revenue, gross margin and earnings per share in fiscal Q3 2026 and touted US$22 billion in customer deals, with Reuters reporting a quarterly revenue forecast above estimates.
What makes this stand out for players is how buying behaviour is shifting. Memory makers are locking in long-term agreements with large AI customers, which Micron said gives it added confidence in its financial performance. Research firm Counterpoint expects global smartphone shipments to decline 2.1 per cent next year as rising chip costs hit demand, as reported by Reuters.
Mehrotra has argued that persistent AI demand is replacing the memory industry's historic cycle of oversupply and price collapse. For anyone planning a build or an upgrade, the message is plain. The shortage is booked in, and 2028 is the earliest exit.
