Lenovo Says High DRAM and NAND Prices Will Become the New Normal, Early 2025 Price Levels Unlikely to Return
Taylor Wilson
Lenovo declared at ISC 2026 that DRAM and NAND prices, after surging from late Q3 2025, will most likely stay elevated through 2030 and beyond. This means cost pressure on every device from PCs to smartphones is structural, not cyclical.
How much have prices risen — and why "no going back"?
The current memory price surge began in late Q3 2025 and has already far exceeded market expectations, with supply shortages ongoing.
Lenovo calls this the "new normal" for the memory market — high prices will be the industry baseline from 2030 onward, not a temporary spike.
This means → Lenovo sees this not as an ordinary pricing cycle but as a fundamental shift in the supply-demand structure.
Factories are expanding — so why is there still a shortage?
Major global manufacturers are indeed building new fabs and ramping capacity; Lenovo's presentation charted each maker's expansion plans.
But Lenovo's assessment: the new capacity will have limited effect on the current supply-demand tightness.
In plain terms = factories are going up, but demand is growing faster. The gap cannot be closed simply by building more plants.
Is Lenovo alone in this view?
Micron has publicly stated that demand now far outstrips its supply capacity — even strategic and top-tier customers cannot be fully served.
Samsung and SK Hynix have signaled the same.
This reflects a system-wide consensus, not a single-company problem — when all three memory giants say they cannot keep up, the shortage is structural.
Who gets hit by higher prices?
The impact of high memory prices will ripple across downstream products: PCs, gaming consoles, smartphones, and every device that uses DRAM or NAND.
This means → consumers will ultimately feel this surge in retail prices, as cost pressure passes from the chip level all the way to the store shelf.
What are manufacturers doing about it?
SK Hynix plans to pull its post-2040 expansion roadmap forward to post-2030, aiming to triple memory output within that timeframe.
In plain terms = capacity originally scheduled for a decade-plus from now is being fast-tracked — but even so, relief won't arrive until after 2030.
The core uncertainty remains unresolved: whether new capacity can close the gap and whether end-user demand will cool. The market currently has no definitive answer.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.