RAM supply set to worsen, says Micron, as CEO celebrates ‘much higher’ prices - Posts huge leaps in revenue, profit, and margin, with more to come

You will pay more for devices and infrastructure that rely on RAM, and shortages may delay new hardware releases.

Micron, a leading memory manufacturer, has warned that global RAM shortages are expected to worsen and persist into 2028, or potentially longer. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated on the company's FY2026 earnings call that demand is projected to exceed supply in both 2027 and 2028, anticipating even tighter market conditions than in 2026. While Micron is investing $25 billion in new factories set to come online in 2028, these facilities will not immediately alleviate availability issues or reduce prices. The company highlighted that demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), crucial for AI hardware, is growing faster than for standard DRAM. Micron reported significant financial gains, with Q4 revenue at $54.25 billion, a substantial increase from $11.3 billion last year, and net income soaring 895% to $85 billion, driven by strong performance in its cloud and datacenter memory businesses.

The persistent RAM shortage signals a structural imbalance in the semiconductor industry, driven by the insatiable demand for AI hardware. Micron's forecast suggests that even with planned capacity expansions, the lead times for memory production will extend significantly, impacting not only consumer electronics but also critical infrastructure like datacenters and AI supercomputers. This prolonged scarcity will likely lead to sustained price inflation across the tech sector, affecting product development roadmaps and IT budget allocations for businesses worldwide. The company's emphasis on HBM indicates a strategic pivot, prioritizing the higher-margin, AI-specific memory segment, which could further squeeze supply for general-purpose DRAM.

Micron's substantial revenue and profit leaps, particularly in its cloud memory and datacenter segments, underscore the immense profitability within the current memory market dynamics. The company's collaboration with NVIDIA on HBM4E implementation points to a deepening integration between memory manufacturers and leading AI chip designers, potentially creating more specialized and lucrative supply chains. For consumers and businesses alike, this environment means continued high costs for computing power and a reevaluation of hardware upgrade cycles, as the availability and price of essential components like RAM remain volatile and subject to AI-driven demand surges.