Joe Maring / Android Authority

TL;DR

• Samsung says electronics prices are heading up as AI data centers soak up massive amounts of memory chips.
• At CES 2026, the company confirmed the shortage is already raising costs and admitted it’s actively considering repricing products to match the new reality.
• DRAM and storage power everything from phones to fridges, but AI servers are buying it in bulk, leaving less for consumer devices.

Samsung just issued a warning that’s hard to miss. The huge demand for memory chips — driven by AI data center buildouts — is squeezing supplies so tightly that prices across the electronics world are set to climb.

At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Samsung’s global marketing head, Wonjin Lee, made it clear that shortages in memory supply are real, and they’re already nudging costs upward, Bloomberg reports. While the company doesn’t want to pass those costs straight to shoppers, Lee admitted that Samsung is starting to consider “repricing” its products to reflect the new economics.

To understand what’s going on, you need one key piece of context: memory chips are the short-term and long-term storage that everything from smartphones to smart fridges relies on. But most of the world’s memory production is now getting snapped up by companies beefing up AI servers, which gobble up high-bandwidth memory in huge volumes.

Samsung itself raised its own memory contract prices by up to 60% late last year amid the crunch, and industry analysts forecast continued steep increases in 2026, according to Reuters.

Samsung isn’t alone in warning about this. Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and other big tech brands have already signaled upcoming price bumps on PCs and other gear because they too can’t dodge higher memory costs.

This ties into recent rumors around the Galaxy S26 lineup. Early reports said Samsung’s next flagship could cost more (about $60), but only in South Korea, while prices in the US might stay the same.

Right now, AI demand is changing how semiconductor supplies are distributed, and this will affect the devices you buy. If memory prices stay high — and with more supply not expected until at least 2027 — consumers should expect to pay more for everything from top phones to everyday laptops.

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