Random-access memory, or RAM, components essential in consumer and commercial computers have tripled or even quadrupled in price since early 2025 due to a significant uptick of artificial intelligence-related data center construction across the country. Some computer supply and information technology companies here are feeling the squeeze.

RAM is a computer’s high-speed, short-term memory essential to a computer’s speedy operation, says Jay Thayer, CEO of Spokane-based U-PC Wholesale LLC, a technology wholesaler and service provider. The more RAM a computer has, measured in gigabytes, the faster it operates. Higher RAM capacity helps computers run more applications simultaneously without slowing down. For instance, the more RAM available, the more tabs a web browser can have open at once.

Most modern computers use either the older and slower DDR4 components, or the newer, faster DDR5 components, he adds. DDR, or double-data rate, is a classification of computer memory. Computers might use anywhere from 8 gigabytes of RAM to 64GB or more.

Since 2025, AI companies including San Francisco-based OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, have been purchasing significant amounts of DDR5 RAM components for use in data centers, Thayer says. The more RAM a data center’s servers have, the faster a company’s chatbot operates, and AI companies are willing to buy RAM at a premium.

“The larger corporations that are building AI are buying up all the RAM and (solid state drives) and they will pay more for it,” Thayer says. 

Thayer explains that one reason why consumers and non-AI businesses are seeing RAM in short supply is related to Boise-based Micron Technology Inc.'s decision to exit its consumer-facing brand, Crucial, at the end of February 2026.

Micron’s decision was prompted by an AI-driven surge in demand for memory and storage that makes it more profitable to sell specifically to AI companies, according to a press release from Micron in December.

“Crucial got out of the market, so they're basically going to sell to (AI companies) from now on,” Thayer says. “We have one less memory vendor to choose from. So that kind of hurts, especially when I know that's a local business. We like supporting them.”

With one less supplier available, and demand for RAM components driving up prices, Thayer and other tech supply companies in the Spokane area have seen prices for any available components increase.

“What I would pay for a 16GB DDR4 RAM chip a year ago was $50. Now, it’s $150 or $200," he says. “I'm even seeing DDR3 come back out of the woodwork, going up for sale on eBay and secondary markets. I wouldn't be using it because it's for older hardware, but somebody is.” 

U-PC stocked up on RAM at the beginning of 2025 as prices began to increase, and the company has tried not to sell the components piecemeal — instead keeping them to use in computer and server builds for local companies.

 RAM inventory at U-PC has appreciated since 2025 and the company has faced pressure from other businesses wanting to purchase U-PC's entire stock at a higher cost. Thayer has turned down these offers, explaining that it would be too expensive to restock inventory to meet his clients’ needs.

Along with RAM, other computer components that use memory, such as solid state drives or video cards, have also increased in price, says Glenn Black, general manager at Spokane-based Jim & Delphine Enterprises LLC, which does business as Friendly Computers, an IT and computer repair business.

While Friendly Computers doesn’t replace RAM components for customers’ computers very often, components like solid state drives, which act as large, long-term storage devices, have tripled in price and need to be replaced more often, Black says. The business passes along those higher costs to the customer.

“Whatever we have to pay for (components), that’s what they’re going to get charged,” Black says. “RAM is usually pretty good, and most RAM has a lifetime warranty on it, but the solid state drive failing, things like that, that's where we see (price hikes), especially right now, because the only thing that people can afford are some of the cheaper non-name brands, because the name brand stuff has gone up even more.”

Both consumers and business customers are paying more for older products because demand is so high, and AI data centers are buying the newest available memory components, Black contends. 

Additionally, because any modern computer or device requires RAM to function, companies not directly involved in buying and selling computer components but that need to manufacture with RAM or purchase new computers for employees, will feel the squeeze in some way, he adds.

This isn’t the first time companies like U-PC have faced computer storage shortages, Thayer says, explaining that when an overseas RAM manufacturing facility burnt down several years ago, increased demand forced prices up for six to eight months.

Liberty Lake-based Scanivalve Corp., which manufactures intelligent measurement equipment, has seen a 20% price increase in some electronic components used in certain products over the last five years, says Addison Pemberton, president of Scanivalve. 

However, the company saw more significant price increases around 2022 and 2023, when supply chain issues increased the prices of electronic parts significantly.

“Some of these components we paid $17 for traditionally, we were paying up to $200 at one point,” he says.

This time, the RAM shortage and consequent technology price increases could continue through 2027, Thayer suggests. 

“We're feeling it especially right now, because I survived last year by buying up stock and surviving on that,” Thayer says. “But now it's crunch time.”