Micron CEO: RAM Shortage Could Drag On Until 2028

If you were hoping RAM prices would settle down soon, Micron has some bad news. The memory maker says the global shortage is not close to ending and could last into 2028.

The warning came during the company's latest earnings call, where its CEO told investors that demand continues to outrun supply. Micron said it has already sold most of what it plans to produce next year, leaving very little spare capacity for anyone who hasn't locked in a deal.

For PC builders and console fans, that is an uncomfortable signal. When a major supplier has its output committed this far ahead, the buyers at the front of the queue are large customers, not consumers. Gaming hardware tends to land at the back of that line, which means retail prices for memory, graphics cards, handhelds and prebuilt systems are likely to stay elevated or climb further.

The pressure comes largely from the surge in AI infrastructure spending. Data centers need enormous quantities of high-bandwidth and server-grade memory, and manufacturers have shifted production toward those higher-margin products. Consumer DRAM gets what is left over, and that leftover has not been enough.

Building new fabrication capacity is slow and expensive. Even when a manufacturer commits to expansion, new lines take years to come online and ramp to meaningful volume. That timeline is why Micron is pointing at 2028 rather than a quick rebound next year.

What does this mean in practice? Anyone planning a PC upgrade may want to weigh buying sooner rather than waiting for a price drop that may not arrive. Console makers and hardware brands could also face tougher decisions on pricing and spec choices for future models, as memory is a major part of the bill of materials. Game developers, meanwhile, may have to keep a close eye on memory budgets if players hold on to older, lower-spec machines for longer.

Nothing here is a guarantee. Demand forecasts can shift, and a slowdown in AI spending would change the picture quickly. But with the head of one of the world's largest memory producers saying shortages will persist and next year's supply is mostly spoken for, the safest assumption for gamers is that cheap RAM is not coming back anytime soon.