The global memory shortage is unlikely to ease soon, with Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra warning that supply conditions could become even tighter through 2027 and 2028. Speaking during Micron’s latest earnings discussions, Mehrotra said demand for memory is continuing to outpace available supply as AI infrastructure consumes increasingly large quantities of DRAM and high-bandwidth memory. The warning reinforces earlier projections from Samsung that the memory market will remain undersupplied as manufacturers struggle to expand production quickly enough.
Micron had already said in June that supply and demand for both DRAM and NAND were expected to remain tight beyond calendar 2027. At the time, the company said that although industry supply should gradually improve in 2028, it did not yet have visibility into when production would fully catch up with demand. Mehrotra’s latest comments suggest that the imbalance has not improved, with the company now describing memory and storage availability in 2027 and 2028 as potentially tighter than current conditions.
AI infrastructure is one of the main forces behind the pressure. Large data centers require significant quantities of HBM for accelerators as well as conventional server DRAM and storage, creating competition for manufacturing capacity that would otherwise serve PCs, smartphones and other consumer devices. Micron says HBM shipments are expected to grow faster than conventional DRAM through 2028, while major customers are increasingly securing supply through long-term agreements.
Samsung has described a similar market environment. In its second-quarter 2026 results, the company said continued investment in AI infrastructure was accelerating demand for server DRAM, enterprise SSDs and HBM, while limited manufacturing capacity was expected to keep the broader memory market undersupplied. Samsung has also said AI customers are providing longer-term demand forecasts as they attempt to secure future memory capacity, giving manufacturers greater visibility into demand several years ahead.
Increasing supply is not as simple as redirecting existing production lines. Expanding DRAM and HBM output requires additional cleanroom space, equipment installation and lengthy production ramp-ups, meaning new capacity can take years to materially affect available supply. Micron is investing heavily in additional manufacturing facilities, but the company has repeatedly cautioned that even new capacity coming online will not immediately eliminate the gap between demand and production.
The shortage has implications well beyond AI servers. When manufacturers allocate more wafer capacity to high-margin server and HBM products, fewer resources can be available for memory used in consumer PCs, gaming hardware and other electronics. That can contribute to higher component costs or restrict manufacturers’ ability to increase RAM and storage specifications without increasing device prices. Valve has already acknowledged the broader market pressure while saying the RAM crisis has not changed its Steam Deck 2 plans, illustrating how closely consumer hardware makers are watching memory availability.
The effect is particularly important for PC builders because DRAM pricing historically moves through strong boom-and-bust cycles. Previous periods of excess supply have pushed memory prices sharply downward, while shortages have produced the opposite result. The current AI-driven cycle is different in that memory manufacturers are receiving increasingly strong multi-year demand commitments from data-center customers, potentially keeping factories highly utilized for longer than in a typical consumer-led cycle.
There is still uncertainty around how long those conditions will last. Memory manufacturers are expanding capacity, and a slowdown in AI infrastructure spending could reduce demand more quickly than current projections assume. Micron’s forecast therefore reflects the company’s current view of supply and customer demand rather than a guarantee that shortages will persist at the same intensity through 2028.
For now, however, two of the world’s major memory manufacturers are signaling that constrained supply is likely to remain a multi-year issue. With AI systems absorbing growing amounts of HBM and conventional DRAM while new factories take years to ramp, the industry increasingly expects the supply-demand imbalance to extend well beyond 2026. That means RAM availability and pricing could remain an important factor for PC, gaming and consumer hardware manufacturers for at least the next several product cycles.
