Nairobi, May 10 -- Kenyan consumers are likely to dig deeper into their pockets to buy locally assembled smartphones as a global scramble for artificial intelligence (AI) chips sends the price of critical memory components soaring and squeezes manufacturers targeting low-income buyers.

The price of memory chips, largely sourced from China and used in smartphones, laptops and other electronics, has increased up to fourfold in the past year as technology giants such as OpenAI, Google and Meta ramp up investment in AI infrastructure and data centres.

The AI boom has tightened global supplies of memory chips used in consumer electronics, piling pressure on Kenya's smartphone assembly industry and threatening the affordability model that has...