Makers of automobile electronics, telecom equipment and other components face a separate but related issue: They often require older types of memory that manufacturers are moving away from making. If you run one of these component makers, “you gotta buy a plane ticket and get that allocation from manufacturers right now,” says MS Hwang, a research director at Counterpoint Research who has been in the memory industry for more than 30 years. “Those guys are now selling their capacity not only for 2026, but also 2027 and 2028,” he adds.

While rapid price appreciation will continue for now, it’s hard to gauge memory-chip pricing beyond mid-2027, says Hwang. He predicts they will soon be considered one of the pricier components in a device, rising from under 10% to as much as 30% of the total cost of phones and other gadgets.