Overview
- Lenovo told attendees at ISC 2026 on June 26 that current DRAM and NAND price levels look set to persist through 2030 and may not return to early‑2025 levels.
- The company based its view on a price surge that began in late 2025 and on industry reports that new production cannot keep pace with rapid growth in AI and cloud demand.
- Cloud providers and AI data centers are locking large shares of high‑performance memory through long contracts and prepayments, which analysts estimate may reserve roughly half to two‑thirds of available capacity.
- Major suppliers including Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix are expanding fabs and signing multi‑year customer deals, but firms say multi‑year lead times and slow yield ramps mean capacity increases will not quickly close the gap.
- For consumers this means phones, laptops, consoles and SSDs are likely to carry higher prices or reduced specs for years, and OEMs may respond with pricing, spec tradeoffs, or tighter allocation of parts.