New Delhi, April 1 -- With about $7 trillion investment in AI and data centres globally, memory manufacturers are diverting significant capacity towards high-bandwidth memory (HBM). This shift has tightened the supply of traditional memory that powers everyday computing devices, triggering a supply crunch across the broader personal computer (PC) ecosystem.

This diversion has now translated into a severe shortage of conventional DRAM and storage used in standard PCs. Consequently, DDR5 8GB RAM prices surged by nearly 270%, and DDR5 16GB RAM prices spiked by up to 3.4x between October 2025 and January 2026.

These component cost hikes have already pushed the prices of brand-new computers up by approximately 20% globally. More importantly,...