The crisis that is causing the stratospheric rise in the Price of RAM is beginning to take its toll on the main manufacturers of hardware and components for all types of equipment. Not only in sales, but also in terms of its forecasts for the coming months.
The situation caused by the demand for this type of memory by companies dedicated to AI and data centers prepared to work with it means that the main manufacturers are dedicating their efforts above all to meeting their demand, leaving the consumer market, but also manufacturers of equipment for companies and components for all types of systems, stranded.
With less RAM memory for these sectors, their prices do not stop rising, and manufacturers are already passing the increase on to their customers. The real problem, therefore, is not the demand for equipment, but the decrease in its availability, because RAM, in addition to being much more expensive, is in short supply due to hoarding by companies dedicated to AI.
Qualcomm: weak forecasts due to the RAM crisis
This is what is happening, for example, to Qualcomm, which has just presented its quarterly results and that, although it has managed to meet expectations for the first quarter of its fiscal year, has raised a much darker outlook for the second quarterwith much tighter forecasts.
Although its CEO, Christiano Amon, has tried to explain to shareholders that the problem with respect to the forecasts they are considering is precisely the lack of supply and the price of RAM, he has not achieved the understanding he sought, and the value of the company’s shares has fallen by 8% in the hours following the meeting that Amon held with them.
The availability of DRAM, which is commonly used in smartphones, computers and wearables, is notably lower than it was a year ago, and although in the case of Qualcomm they see that the demand for mobile phones remains solid, they point out that the supply of memory has decreased, because “all memory manufacturers have dedicated all their manufacturing capacity to data centers«. Therefore, if this situation does not change, the availability of supplies for consumer electronics will be lower and more expensive over the years.
Amon has commented that he is not sure if mobile manufacturers will raise the prices of the terminals, but that he does expect that the RAM shortage will affect their supply. He also highlighted that Qualcomm customers focus on high-end devices, which means they have more resources to absorb memory price increases.
Qualcomm is not the only company in the sector that is suffering the consequences of the RAM crisis. ARM has also recorded a fall in the stock market after publishing results that reflect its future concerns about the supply and price of memory for smartphones. Apple has also confirmed that it is not able to source enough chips to meet demand for iPhones.
Meanwhile, computer manufacturers, both consumer and business, have similar problems, with forecasts that are not very promising for this year. The price of RAM is leading them to raise prices. So much so that according to Gartner estimates, computers destined for the consumer market may increase between 15% and 40%.
As for the companiesthere are more and more They decide to take advantage of their current stock and try to both repair them and extend their life cycle.sometimes even changing its operating system and applications for others that consume less resources. In other cases, companies decide to Buy second-hand equipment to try to weather the storm of price escalation, and be able to postpone the purchase of new equipment until at least 2027.
This can be a source of income for companies that have equipment reconditioning divisions, or second-hand sales, but it is obviously not going to improve their sales of new equipment, which means they have to look for alternative and imaginative solutions to get RAM at a cheaper price, in addition to better options in the supply chain.
China: possible solution to the RAM crisis
This solution, for manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Acer and Asus, goes through look for supplies other than the big three traditional memory problems: Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix. Where? In China. According to Nikkei, Dell and HP have already begun to approve DRAM memory from the CXMT company. As for Acer and Asus, they are asking their partners in China to send them memory chips manufactured in that country.
This represents a big change with respect to the usual panorama, since until recently manufacturers usually purchased the key components of the equipment, such as processors, GPUs, screens and memories, while their partners were in charge of other less important parts, as well as the final assembly. Now it seems that their role is more important, and they are also in charge of management and support to locate viable RAM memory in other companies.
Both the aforementioned CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies), such as NAND chip developer Yangtze Memory Technologies Cop (Hillock) have already stepped on the accelerator to increase their production capacity in order to cover the shortfall in demand for chips for the consumer market. But although HP and Dell are already in the process of homologating CXMT chips, that does not mean that they will automatically order memory modules from them to solve their price and supply problems.
Apparently, what both companies are looking for is to have alternative sources of memory supply in case the situation goes beyond the second half of this year. That is, it is a “Plan B” to have prepared if the RAM market does not improve.
However, this plan seems to present certain difficulties. Especially for American manufacturers. CXMT is not yet banned in the United States, although it faces an investigation after US authorities added it to its list of companies suspected of collaborating with the Chinese military.
Aside from that, there is the continued threat of US tariffs on China to consider. Although the situation between the two is currently going through a truce phase, at any time Donald Trump could announce again the imposition of high tariffs on products and components from China. Still, the instability of the supply of memory chips, and their rising price, may lead companies to be willing to assume all the risks that arise to have the components they need. The opposite could be even more harmful for them.
For now, neither Asus, Dell nor HP have commented on the matter, although HP has indicated that the company will only use these chips in equipment intended for sale outside the United States. Acer, for its part, has acknowledged that it maintains close contact with several global manufacturers and suppliers to dynamically adjust its operations and manage changes in component prices.
