According to CTEE, DRAM contract prices have climbed so fast they’re now beating gold in the inflation race. ADATA chairman Chen Libai claims this quarter will mark the beginning of a full-blown DRAM bull market, with 2026 shaping up for nasty shortages.

Memory pricing has been climbing all year. In September, contract prices for NAND and DRAM were already up 15 to 20 per cent. By October, the industry was talking about a 50 per cent rise for Q4, well above the 30 per cent punters expected at the start of the year. It has now culminated in the eye-watering 171.8 per cent hike as the market heads into the festive season.

Server-grade RDIMM and high-bandwidth memory might be hogging the spotlight, but DDR5 hasn’t dodged the spike either. Consumer stock is getting shafted as manufacturers chase bigger margins with datacentre kit. That means less DDR5 is getting made for the masses.

Retail prices are already catching up. A quick browse on Newegg shows Corsair’s Vengeance RGB 2x16GB 6000MT/s DDR5 kit now going for $183, nearly double what it cost in July when PCPartPicker had it at $91. Expect that trend to continue.

And it’s not just DRAM being dragged into the AI pricing mess. NAND flash are climbing in cost thanks to server builders trying to feed the GPU beast.

Industry whispers say this could go on for another four years, which is conveniently how long some AI players have inked DRAM deals with Samsung and SK Hynix.