In 2025, this MacBook Pro cost $1,600.
Less than a year later, the same laptop
cost $400 more. Apple says it's because
of demand for memory and storage fueled
by the [music] rapid expansion of AI
data centers. That's the exact same
reason Xbox gave for a $150 price hike
on its nearly 6-year-old console.
Lenovo, Dell, and HP have all raised
prices, too, citing the same culprit.
>> Just these seven drives alone is over $6
or $7,000. When I [music] bought them,
they were probably about $1,500 all in.
These prices aren't [music] tethered to
new technology. They've just gone up
because some center and some place needs
them more than I do. The narrative is
that AI data centers are buying up huge
amounts of memory and chips, causing
shortages and skyrocketing prices for
everyday electronics. There's just one
issue. Data centers don't use the same
type of microchips as your phone or
laptop. And now the world's biggest
memory chip makers are being sued for
allegedly colluding to inflate prices.
So who or what is actually [music] to
blame? AI data centers or the companies
making the chips?
And could a moratorium on data centers
actually force prices down?
To know what's really going on with
these tech prices, we first need to
understand three types of microchips.
NAND, DRAM, and HBM. In terms of memory,
they work a bit like the human [music]
brain. NAND is like your long-term
memory. It holds on to information even
after a device is powered off.
>> Think of an iPhone is the best example.
If you take a lot of photos, a thousand
photos in a month or something like that
and they're on your phone, that's
usually stored in in nan storage.
>> DRAM [music] or dynamic random access
memory is your short-term memory, fast
but temporary, and it clears the moment
you switch the power off. HBM or high
bandwidth memory is essentially DRAM on
steroids. It's the same kind of
short-term memory, but it's designed to
process much more data at once, more
than any human brain could. While NAND
and DAM chips are used to power devices
like smartphones, tablets, computers,
and smart TVs, HBM chips are used to
power AI systems. All DRAM, NAND, and
HBM microchips start out as thin silicon
wafers. The key point is that the more
of these tiny tiny cells and connections
you can cram onto a wafer, the more data
you can store onto that.
>> HBM is a whole other level of storage
capacity. HBM takes one of those chips
and they stack them vertically next to
another one and then another one and
then another one and they're kind of
packaged together in a kind of 3D shape.
When you mash all those chips together,
you get a lot more memory. HBM can move
data 5 to 10 times [music] faster than a
standard DRAM chip. Its stack design
also makes manufacturing [music] HBM
chips significantly more complex.
>> All that complexity just basically means
that that they [music] um they're much
more expensive to manufacture and
actually they take a lot more kind of
manufacturing capacity.
>> These HBM chips are the backbone of AI
data centers and demand for them is
through the roof. So if HBM is what
powers AI, why is there a shortage of
the other two types? It all comes down
to just three companies. Micron,
Samsung, and SKHX.
Together, they produce more than 60% of
the world's NAND [music]
and nearly 90% of its DRAM. All three
companies have shifted at least some of
their production capacity to building
[music] HBM microchips. And the stock
prices for all three companies jumped
massively between June 2025 and June
2026.
>> If you're a memory chip company,
obviously you're going to go to the best
customers, and right now those are the
AI companies.
>> That means less capacity to produce the
other kinds of chips. This shift is no
surprise when you realize how central AI
has become to the US economy.
>> Largest capital spending booms we've
ever seen.
>> Artificial intelligence is transforming
the economy right before our eyes. 80%
of stock gains this year came from AI
companies.
>> Altogether, tech giants Google,
Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon [music] have
spent more than $1 trillion on expanding
AI since 2023.
As of August 2026, [music]
there are 2,228
new data centers in planning or
construction stages across the US. With
less DRAM and NAND available, prices are
soaring. Those
higher component costs land on
electronics companies, but instead of
completely absorbing the extra expense,
they're passing the bill onto customers.
For instance, in [music] June, Xbox
announced it would raise the price of
its $512 GB Series S gaming console from
$400 to [music] $500 and the 1 TBTE
version from $450 to $600. It also
announced it would be discontinuing its
two TBTE console. We went to a gaming
tournament at OSNYC to see how gamers
are taking the news.
>> All right. All right.
>> You know, I was thinking about buying a
Xbox Series S and back then it was it
was nice and affordable. It was around
like $300 because of what's going on.
It's up to $600. It's just out out of my
budget. The vast history of gaming is a
great story. I just hope that that story
doesn't have a bad ending coming soon
with uh with all the AI muck and penza.
>> And it's not just Xbox PC gaming gear is
getting hit, too.
>> I was expecting to go buy a Steam Deck,
but because of the AI bubble and what
the storage is, it's completely sold
out. They finally stock, but they
increased the prices just to match the
the the current market. Xbox CEO Asha
Chararma has already said that the
gaming industry is pricing out some
consumers. Price hikes like this are
exacerbating it.
>> I may have to play gaming and start
watching sports.
>> Frustration over Xbox's plans to
continue raising prices into 2027 is
something gaming YouTuber Luke Stevens
has seen firsthand.
>> Who among you is buying that [music]
for, let's say, $9.99? We're going to
let this scroll and see where you're at.
Jesus, I see a good number of notes.
[laughter]
>> While Xbox [music] has not announced the
price of its next generation console,
the company warned that console memory
and storage costs are expected to double
again by the fall of 2027. The
announcement isn't surprising, but it it
sure is disappointing. You know, we have
a 6-year-old console that is for the top
tier variant, you know, approaching
$1,000.
So, can you only imagine what the new
one is going to cost? [laughter] You
know, like that's it's created a feeling
of dread among a lot of the gaming
[music] community where normally there's
excitement right around this time.
>> Luke says these pricing trends are
slowly changing the landscape of gaming.
>> I think they're going to start to
basically sell consoles like they sell
cell phones where it's just yeah, you
get on a 2-year, threeyear plan or
whatever and that's just how it is
because it is just getting to a point
where it's just not affordable for
people to own it outright. There's just
not that many people that can afford,
especially right now, a 12 to $1,500
console. When all is said and done, it
just doesn't work. Like, the math isn't
there. The thing is, Microsoft, Xbox's
parent company, is one of the companies
investing heavily in data center
expansion. Business Insider mapped out
1,416
built or approved data centers as of
June 2026. 53 of those were built by
Microsoft, and many of them are massive.
Of the companies we tracked, only Amazon
surpassed Microsoft in large-scale data
center construction. Microsoft expects
to spend roughly $175 billion on AI in
2026 alone. So, if Microsoft is buying
enough HBM chips to run its data
centers, why won't it do the same for
its gaming division? The issue is there
simply aren't enough chips to go around.
Even the most powerful companies are
struggling to get their hands on the
shrinking supply. Apple is one of if not
the largest purchaser of a lot of these
like memory modules and stuff at least
for consumerf facing hardware uh in
[music] the world and so for them to be
facing the same difficulties with
acquiring the pieces that they need to
to build the their electronics is pretty
remarkable. Apple has kind of lost
control of the computer supply chain a
little bit lately because it doesn't
have a lot of AI data centers. Rising
memory prices are hitting the people who
rely on storage to make a living.
Atlanta commercial photographer Alan
Kulie says he typically spends anywhere
from $15,000 to $20,000 on storage
devices each year. The biggest price
hikes he's noticed are for solidstate
drives. These are more traditional SSDs
or solid state drives that I use. This
is a 4 TB SanDisk. [music] This is a two
TB SAM disc. These are Samsung's.
They're T7s. These T5 drives, these are
like 1 TBTE. Just these seven drives
alone is over $600 or $7,000. When I
bought them, they were probably about
$1,500 all in. This is a 500 gig CFast
card. I use this when I'm doing um stuff
with my cinema cameras. My photo cameras
will use CFast or CF Express cards,
[music] and they'll also use SD cards.
All in, everything you see here is about
$7,500. If we were to go up to 200%,
which is something I've definitely seen,
we're talking about what is that 21,000
$22,000 for the same stuff that was just
$7,000. [music]
That's I could not have bought half of
this stuff if the numbers were that
high.
>> We had Allan compare the prices he paid
for storage [music] in the past with
what they'd cost him today.
>> So, I'm looking at the blue 4 terbte
Samsung T7.
It is currently $889.
Um, and that's a sale, but because it's
actually $1,144.99.
When I go to my receipt for these
drives, I bought it at the time for
$285.
That $285 drive is now well over $1,000.
I purchased this drive in April on April
19th of 2025.
April 19th of 2025 till July of 2026,
we're talking about it has gone up over
200%.
Crazy. But when I scroll through here
and I see the prices of SSDs today, and
the idea that they expect me to use my
hard-earned money to pay this much for
something that was whatever 200% cheaper
just last year alone, they are bugging.
like Apple and Xbox, photographers could
soon feel forced to [music] pass rising
storage costs on to their clients.
>> I am in this actual moment blown away.
These prices aren't tethered to new
technology. It's not that they went up
because they become so exponentially
better than they were.
>> Allen's story is identical to the ones
Jeff Hirs has been hearing from his
customers, too.
>> They say, "Well, [music] I don't
understand this. Last year this was only
a $50 memory card. It now it's over
$100.
Why?
>> Jeff is the president of Photo Care, a
camera store in New York established in
1968. [music] He says prices for memory
cards and solid state drives have
doubled since the beginning of 2026.
>> Solid state drive became a standard and
it's actually [music] small now, 1 TBTE.
So this right now is over $300 and 8
months ago before the turn of the year
it was maybe [music] $170. One customer
that was shooting a movie bought cards
that were effectively say $500 a card
last year or the last time [music] that
person bought more cards uh they were
$1,300 a card. He says the high prices
for memory have put financial pressure
on his clients who depend on them for
work.
>> It's just a tough spot right now for
[music] people that are using electronic
cameras in making their their living.
We've seen [music]
our media sales numbers as far as
quantity decrease by
30%.
>> Jeff worries recent price hikes could
have broader implications for the
industry. I don't want to say [music]
it's putting electronic media out of
reach of some people, but it is coming
close to that.
So, is there any relief in sight?
Possibly. One solution is to open more
chip factories known as fabs to increase
supply. But opening a fab is not cheap.
The cost of building one is estimated
between $15 billion and$20 billion. The
majority of that cost comes from the
expensive machines needed to make these
chips. Just one cost up to $400 million,
and a single facility needs rows and
rows of them. Keeping FABs clean is also
very expensive. Many require
specifically designed clean rooms to
protect sensitive silicon wafers from
dust and other airborne particles that
could cause microscopic defects. And
even if the cost of construction weren't
an issue, it would still take 3 to 5
years to build a single fab.
>> You can't just flick a switch and say we
we're going to double the amount of
memory chip production [music] in 6
months.
>> SK Heinix told Business Insider that
it's fasttracking the construction of
FABS with the Yongen semiconductor
cluster, which was scheduled for
completion in 2045, but has been moved
up to 2023. Some critics believe the
memory shortage may be manufactured. In
June 2026, 17 plaintiffs filed a class
action antirust [music] lawsuit alleging
that Micron, Samsung, and SKH Highix
worked together to limit memory supply
and drive up prices. This is not the
first time these companies have been in
hot water. In the early 2000s, Samsung
and Heinix pleaded guilty to conspiring
[music] to fix jam prices. Micron
admitted to participating in the same
conspiracy, but escaped prosecution by
cooperating with federal investigators.
>> When that type of demand hits an
industry like this, there's a lot less
leeway and there's really a lot more
control that these three or four
companies exert over the industry.
Sometimes that's okay, but sometimes
it's really really damaging and it'll be
[music] up to the people involved in
this lawsuit to to prove those damages
beyond beyond a reasonable doubt.
Another solution would be slowing the
expansion of AI data centers to help
chip production catch up. And that push
is growing. Data centers have faced
growing backlash from communities across
the US for their long-term effects on
both the environment and the economy. If
AI data center construction slows by
half or it takes twice as long to
develop these things or or if fewer of
them [music] actually get done or
actually get approved, then you could
you could really have a change in in AI
demand for memory chips for sure.
>> On July 18th, 2026,
142 protests opposing data center
buildouts took place across 42 states.
So far, dozens of local governments
across the US have [music] moved to
pause data center construction. In July
2026, New York became the [music] first
state to enact a one-year moratorum.
>> This pause will remain in place for up
to one year, while New York establishes
the strongest possible framework to
protect our communities. If politics and
things like permitting and things like
that, if those types of issues slow down
AI development, you could certainly see
a knock-on effect on demand for memory
chips and storage. The only question
left is whether in the age of AI, memory
[music] prices will ever go down. If
what's past is prologue, Alistair says
history might give us a clue.
>> Go back two or three decades, the memory
chip industry was hugely cyclical. So
there'd be these huge boom periods where
demand would go up and there wasn't
enough supply and prices would really
rise and [music] memory chip makers
would make massive amounts of money and
then demand would slow down a bit.
Production would increase and there'd be
over supply and then prices would crash
back down. That type of long-term
history of boom and bust cycles is very
very hard to break. We might just make
way too many memory chips in two years
time and then prices will come crashing
down again. I've been doing this for 20
or 30 years now and and a lot of things
that people thought would last forever
haven't lasted forever. So, I think I
think that's certainly going to be true
again.