Electronics Prices Set to Surge Up to 20% as AI Demand Starves Consumer Chip Supply
AI’s data center boom is creeping into your wallet. Prices for smartphones, laptops, and appliances could rise 5% to 20% through 2026 as memory chips get diverted from consumer electronics, Financial Times reports. Dell’s COO Jeff Clarke says the company has “never seen costs move this fast,” while British PC maker Raspberry Pi has already raised prices, calling the pressure “painful.”
- Samsung and SK Hynix, which control ~70% of the DRAM market, say 2026 orders already exceed capacity, with Samsung hiking some memory chip prices by up to 60%.
- Big Tech plans to spend $620B on AI infrastructure in 2026, draining chip supply as cloud giants like AmazonAMZN and AlphabetGOOGL lock in long-term contracts.
Supply crunch deepens: Citigroup warns memory supply stays tight until at least 2027, as new fabs take years to build. Even with Samsung expanding and SK Hynix spending $91B, buyers are already in panic mode, with one analyst saying firms are paying “any price” to secure chips. Xiaomi’s Lu Weibing expects 2026 supply chain pressures to be “far greater than” 2025 — potentially rivaling the “serious supply chain disruptions seen during the pandemic.”