Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says RAM shortages will persist into 2028 and perhaps beyond, and customers will pay "much higher prices" than they did this year

RAM prices are projected to increase significantly, with shortages expected until at least 2028.

Micron's CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, announced that the company anticipates RAM shortages will continue through 2028, and potentially longer. During Micron's FY 2026 earnings call, Mehrotra stated that demand is expected to exceed supply in both 2027 and 2028, with an increasingly tight industry environment compared to 2026. He indicated that customers will face significantly higher prices for RAM than they did in the current year. Micron is investing $25 billion in capital expenditures for new factories set to come online in 2028, but these facilities will not immediately alleviate supply constraints or lower prices. The CEO highlighted that demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), crucial for AI hardware, is growing faster than DRAM, and Micron is working on optimizing HBM profitability. Micron reported substantial revenue and profit increases, with Q4 revenue reaching $54.25 billion and annual revenue at $133.2 billion, attributing these gains partly to strong performance in its cloud memory and datacenter business units.

The persistent RAM shortages and projected price hikes signal a sustained period of high component costs for AI hardware development and deployment. This suggests that companies reliant on advanced memory, particularly for AI accelerators and high-performance computing, will need to budget for increased capital expenditure and potentially revise product pricing strategies. Micron's focus on HBM and its improved margins in this segment indicate a strategic pivot towards higher-value components, which could reshape competitive dynamics in the memory market.

This situation affects nearly all technology sectors that incorporate advanced computing, from cloud providers and server manufacturers to consumer electronics and automotive industries. The extended timeline for supply-demand balance implies that innovation cycles may be constrained by memory availability, potentially delaying the rollout of next-generation products. Investors and industry analysts will be watching how other memory manufacturers respond and whether significant capacity expansions beyond Micron's plans are initiated to meet long-term demand.