Laptop prices are quietly heading north, and shoppers may soon feel the impact. A tightening supply of memory chips, strained by surging demand from AI companies, is pushing manufacturers to rethink pricing across the PC industry. Major players such as Dell and HP have already begun adjusting prices, signalling that higher costs could soon become the norm rather than the exception.
The problem sits deep in the supply chain. Memory components such as DRAM and NAND, essential for laptops, desktops and gaming devices, are becoming harder to secure at stable prices. According to IDC, the memory market is under sustained strain this year, with supply expansion expected to lag well behind historical levels. That imbalance is now spilling into consumer hardware.
Dell has already moved first. Internal pricing documents reviewed by Business Insider show that the company increased prices on several Dell Pro and Pro Max notebooks and desktops fitted with 32GB of memory. The changes range from $130 to $230, depending on configuration. HP is preparing similar moves. On its November earnings call, the company’s chief executive said price increases were planned “across the board,” citing rising memory costs.
Warnings from industry leaders are growing louder. Yang Yuanqing, chief executive of Lenovo, told Reuters that PC shipments were likely to “face pressure” as component costs rise. At Intel, chief executive Lip-Bu Tan offered little reassurance, saying there may be “no relief until 2028.”
Smaller manufacturers, with fewer options to negotiate supply contracts, are feeling the squeeze more acutely. Framework has raised prices multiple times since December. Corsair cancelled customer preorders for memory kits after realising they were priced too low, later relaunching them at higher rates and citing increased market costs.
The disruption is extending beyond traditional PCs. Valve has warned customers that its Steam Deck handheld could be “out of stock intermittently” in some regions due to memory and storage shortages. The company has also said it may need to reconsider pricing and launch timelines for upcoming hardware, including its Steam Machine and Steam Frame devices.
Even the industry’s largest players are acknowledging the pressure. Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on the company’s earnings call that memory prices were rising “significantly,” adding that the situation could affect margins. Elon Musk described the situation as a “chip wall” during Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
At the centre of the shortage is fierce competition for production capacity. AI companies are absorbing large volumes of high-bandwidth memory to train language models and are willing to pay premium prices to secure supply. Memory producers, led by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, are increasingly directing output toward those higher-value AI orders.
SK Hynix has already committed its entire DRAM and NAND output through 2026, while Micron has said supply is likely to remain tight for the “foreseeable future.” With AI spending accelerating at companies such as Microsoft and Meta, relief for consumer electronics appears distant.
In India, laptop prices on platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and Vijay Sales have not yet shown sharp increases. But with manufacturers already adjusting prices elsewhere and executives openly acknowledging the pressure, higher costs may only be a matter of time.
For buyers waiting on discounts, the window could be closing.
