Global RAM Shortages: How should you prepare?

Article

Publish Date:

18 March 2026

The global memory market has been stretched to its absolute limit with demand exceeding supply and production capabilities, driven primarily by AI and data centre expansions.

How does this impact you?

Courtesy of the booming demand memory prices are rising, especially for RAM-heavy server and workstation configurations. We’ve personally witnessed prices tripling in some cases!

It’s also becoming more difficult to source high-capacity systems. As suppliers constrain lower priority hardware to meet demand from hyperscalers and AI data centres, there are fewer server and workstation configurations to choose from.

And, if you can find the extra budget and get the configuration you desire, you’ll join a queue of orders impacted by increased lead times that are expected by vendors to persist for months to years.

How can you mitigate its impact?

Right size your memory, tune your workloads and validate real RAM headroom.
Consider balanced upgrades to meet performance requirements such as, CPU, GPU and SSD
Pull forward orders for planned work to lock in availability and pricing ahead of continued increases in demand and price.
Plan for alternative configurations to reduce risk if preferred parts aren’t available.

If you have major projects or hardware upgrades planned in 2026, we recommend you review your roadmap before the impact continues to grow.