Memory prices tipped to fall as China starts flooding the market with DRAM and NAND chips

[yRaz]

Now would be a horrible time to drive a Chinese car. Due to price war, they force part suppliers to keep lowering prices. We will never know how much was sacrificed for the cheap prices that have stayed unbelievably low for years.
And one thing I learned about car crashes, many injuries never go away. A neck pain that comes and goes, random back pain at night. Car safety truly matters. And Chinese have not learned it yet.

Car safety? We literally have modern cars locking the passengers in the vehicles while on fire. They spy on you and in 2027 they will be mandated to spy on. They will have kill switches and AI powered cameras to judge if you are intoxicated or not. This technology doesn't exist yet. Meanwhile basically all vehicles made in the last 4 years are less reliable when compared against any model year in the last 40 years before them. You want to talk about safety problems? What if the AI in an ambulance confuses the pupil dilation of the drivers adrenaline rush in a life threatening situation and the patient dies because it shut itself off? I don't want to hear about the 50k a year of motor vehicle deaths while there are between 200,000 to 500,000 a year from a lack of access of Healthcare while we spend billions killing thousands of people in other countries on the otherside of the world.

All this virtue signaling I see about safety is such a hypocritical shame it makes my blood boil. For the current cost of the war in Iran, would could end homelessness, give child care for all and pay for free 4 year public colleges for all. Not one, all 3 and still have money left over.

And where exactly do you find that they arent safe? They're sold in almost 80 countries world wide,many of which are the EU which has stricter safety standards than the US. The reason we don't sell them in the US was literally because we were afraid they were going to be used for spying. The same reason we ban most Chinese products

 

[Endymio]

The ram cartel has restricted consumer access from collusion in price fixing while a real shortage doesn't exist,...economics would dictate ram manufacturers expand production, because more production means more sales

Why do people persist in espousing cockamamie tinfoil hat theories like this? Memory chips are being bought at the fastest pace in history, and RAM manufacturers **are** increasing production by an unprecented amount-- 600% above 2025 levels. But that doesn't happen overnight. Until supply equalizes with demand, expect prices to remain high.

 

[Endymio]

For the current cost of the war in Iran, would could end homelessness, give child care for all and pay for free 4 year public colleges for all. Not one, all 3 and still have money left over.

Why can't people learn math? We've spent $29B on the war in Iran so far. Compare that to $190B in just four years on USAID, to give free condoms to Africa and fund transgender opera performances in Guatemala. Over the last three decades, we've spent over one trillion "fighting homelessness". San Francisco was recently found to be spending more than $100,000 a year per homeless person -- and wound up with more homeless than when they started.

THATS JUST HOMELESSNESS. What about the rest of your claim? In the US, we spent more than $700B a year on college tuition, and around $80 billion a year on child care. If we made those free, demand for both would explode and we could expect to spent double that -- each and every year. You're not just wrong, you're wrong by several orders of magnitude.

 

[Hecate91]

All this virtue signaling I see about safety is such a hypocritical shame it makes my blood boil. For the current cost of the war in Iran, would could end homelessness, give child care for all and pay for free 4 year public colleges for all. Not one, all 3 and still have money left over.

This can't happen because helping the poor and homeless is anti-American or something, have to have socialist handouts for corporations, and end stage capitalism "well just don't be poor" for the average person.
Or even just imagine if we could spend on what goes to datacenters on fixing road and power infrastructure.

 

[OortCloud]

Just make sure you never buy Crucial memory again when they try to weasel their way back into the consumer market in a year or two.
Nice to see China taking down one of the price fixed technology cartels. Next stop GPUs...

 

[LordVile95]

Just make sure you never buy Crucial memory again when they try to weasel their way back into the consumer market in a year or two.
Nice to see China taking down one of the price fixed technology cartels. Next stop GPUs...

Doesn’t really matter if you buy crucial or not they sell to other brands

 

[PeterV]

In any case, it would be nice if prices for storage and memory dropped significantly again (like they used to be or even lower).

It is nice to hear and read that the Chinese are doing their bit; now let's just hope it helps.

 

[Tantor]

This is how monopolies and many modern big companies work. Uber and lyft did the same thing by subsidizing rides with angel investor money to attract consumers. After they wiped out taxi competition and needed to make a profit, they then raised prices by a lot.

This is why it is importsnt to have competition.

Very true. Note that I'm not blaming the Chinese. I have tremendous respect for them.

 

[Tantor]

This can't happen because helping the poor and homeless is anti-American or something, have to have socialist handouts for corporations, and end stage capitalism "well just don't be poor" for the average person.
Or even just imagine if we could spend on what goes to datacenters on fixing road and power infrastructure.

For generations Americans have voted to end foreign wars, and put the American citizen FIRST. But every time the Elites swoop in and twist the new leaders back into the same old rut.

The big question is who the hell are these Elites?

 

[Tantor]

The iPad which has over 50% tablet market share? Then Samsung has 25%

True, but Apple's tablets are produced in China, and that includes Taiwan. Taiwan is a sub-set of Chinese industry. The simple truth is that the entire world runs on Chinese products. I'm no different, I love Chinese goods.

China is the most successful manufacturing and marketing entity that has ever existed. I laugh when people 'trumpet' that the US and EU can contain Chinese influence by shutting out Huawei or preventing China from getting Western tech.

Meanwhile, Western leaders are busy destroying their own founding stock.

 

[LordVile95]

True, but Apple's tablets are produced in China, and that includes Taiwan. Taiwan is a sub-set of Chinese industry. The simple truth is that the entire world runs on Chinese products. I'm no different, I love Chinese goods.

China is the most successful manufacturing and marketing entity that has ever existed. I laugh when people 'trumpet' that the US and EU can contain Chinese influence by shutting out Huawei or preventing China from getting Western tech.

Meanwhile, Western leaders are busy destroying their own founding stock.

Wher they’re produced doesn’t really mean that much when they don’t have the IP access no matter what West Taiwan says

 

[Endymio]

China is the most successful manufacturing and marketing entity that has ever existed. I laugh when people 'trumpet' that the US and EU can contain Chinese influence

It's easy to undercut the competition you manufacture using slave-labor genocide camps and steal trillions of dollars of intellectual property. Still, you're wrong that China is "the most successful" ever. In the late 1950s, the US was responsible for half the manufactured goods in the entire world, and even today China's per-capita GDP is less than a quarter of the US's.

 

[Hecate91]

Western IP laws often stifle innovation and are also used to strangle away right to repair from the end consumer through corporate paid lobbying.
China doesn't care about IP laws if it creates more fair competition and business opportunities, just look at the Chinese hifi market for example, or mini PC's, none of the western companies can compete on price/performance or value.

I couldn't care less if the Chinese ram makers had to take IP if it means they can undercut the Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron ram cartel which are price fixing again.

 

[Hecate91]

For generations Americans have voted to end foreign wars, and put the American citizen FIRST. But every time the Elites swoop in and twist the new leaders back into the same old rut.

The big question is who the hell are these Elites?

Anyone who attends the WEF at Davos, as well as Blackrock and Vanguard.
Votes from the average citizen don't matter anymore when the elites hold all of the power.

 

[LordVile95]

Western IP laws often stifle innovation and are also used to strangle away right to repair from the end consumer through corporate paid lobbying.

They’re really not and most things now require more knowledge, skill and tooling that the average person has so right to repair for things isn’t exactly reasonable in a lot of cases.

China doesn't care about IP laws if it creates more fair competition and business opportunities, just look at the Chinese hifi market for example, or mini PC's, none of the western companies can compete on price/performance or value.

That’s what slave Labour gets you. There’s a reason why most people would rather get a product that’s made in Europe or the US.

I couldn't care less if the Chinese ram makers had to take IP if it means they can undercut the Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron ram cartel which are price fixing again.

A new player is nice but if your IP is stolen why bother doing R+D at all?

 

[snOrdquist]

China got wise to how quick I was going to clutch forth $3000 per 100GB for more RAM when they saw 0 solar panels on the roof. Blah blah just disappointed.

 

[Hecate91]

They’re really not and most things now require more knowledge, skill and tooling that the average person has so right to repair for things isn’t exactly reasonable in a lot of cases.

Not for the C-suite and the VC's, but for a regular consumer replaceable RAM and batteries is absolutely worth it, especially as devices have gotten significantly more expensive thanks to AI.

That’s what slave Labour gets you. There’s a reason why most people would rather get a product that’s made in Europe or the US.

Tech products made in the EU isn't going to happen, and won't happen in the US unless chips are made in the US also.
I am not defending slave labor, however slave level labor is going to happen as long as people want cheap throw away electronics, if not made in China it's going to made in India or Vietnam with little pay and very few health or safety regulations.

A new player is nice but if your IP is stolen why bother doing R+D at all?

It's not like any of the 3 main RAM manufacturers are dedicating much of any R&D into consumer products anyway, price per GB of SSD's has skyrocketed, and NAND density hasn't increased.

 

[LordVile95]

Not for the C-suite and the VC's, but for a regular consumer replaceable RAM and batteries is absolutely worth it, especially as devices have gotten significantly more expensive thanks to AI.

Again it depends as some applications greatly benefit from not having things like user replaceable RAM and removable batteries just isn’t possible in some products without making them significantly worse.

Tech products made in the EU isn't going to happen, and won't happen in the US unless chips are made in the US also.

Literally all the equipment used to make chips is built in the EU.

I am not defending slave labor, however slave level labor is going to happen as long as people want cheap throw away electronics, if not made in China it's going to made in India or Vietnam with little pay and very few health or safety regulations.

At least India is a democracy rather than an authoritarian state so workers can strike, protest etc without having to worry about their social credit score.

It's not like any of the 3 main RAM manufacturers are dedicating much of any R&D into consumer products anyway, price per GB of SSD's has skyrocketed, and NAND density hasn't increased.

I guess DDR6 just comes from thin air then

 

[TLesp]

Dram price not just manufacturer increase ,but retail prices are the biggest problem they charge what ever they want . it cost them $50 it could sell for 60 80 100. the mark-up is the big problem....this should be regulated..

 

[DEMinSoCal]

Confused. The title makes it sound like lots of chip makers are flooding the market, but the article just lists CXMT. Others, it says, are boosting production of chips for RDIMMS for servers (not consumers).

So, are there lots of China chip makers boosting production or just CXMT? Is it just Corsair getting these chips or are there others?

To be honest, given those profit margins (700%), why would anyone lower prices?

 

[DEMinSoCal]

Dram price not just manufacturer increase ,but retail prices are the biggest problem they charge what ever they want . it cost them $50 it could sell for 60 80 100. the mark-up is the big problem....this should be regulated..

It's worse than that! Find a 16GB DDR5-5600 SODIMM for under $250 (used to be around $50 during more normal times), or SSD's that have quadrupled. Obviously, it's not because that's what the real cost is, but with reported 700% profit margins, they're just jacking up prices as high as people will pay.

 

[HomeyBroDude]

High prices are like taxes. Neither are ever coming back down.

 

[Rudyduu]

Why can't people learn math? We've spent $29B on the war in Iran so far. Compare that to $190B in just four years on USAID, to give free condoms to Africa and fund transgender opera performances in Guatemala. Over the last three decades, we've spent over one trillion "fighting homelessness". San Francisco was recently found to be spending more than $100,000 a year per homeless person -- and wound up with more homeless than when they started.

THATS JUST HOMELESSNESS. What about the rest of your claim? In the US, we spent more than $700B a year on college tuition, and around $80 billion a year on child care. If we made those free, demand for both would explode and we could expect to spent double that -- each and every year. You're not just wrong, you're wrong by several orders of magnitude.

You really drank the media coolaid on USAID didn't you? A tiny portion of that money went to birth control or any, if any at all trans operas, most of it went to creating soft power in other countries that would have increased the range of western influence. I personally saw large bags of US grown rice from USAID in Haiti. That money was spent on US farmers to feed people around the world and now those US farmers aren't making nearly as much money as they had before and the odds of people starving to death has significantly increased. Way to believe the BS the media tells you to believe without doing any of your own research.

Now that the US has pulled nearly all of that assistance, China and Russia have stepped in and support for those two countries has increased significantly around the developing world. You think any of those countries would do the US any favors now that we've pulled aid? The cost of all that aid was insignificant for all the good it did to those countries and the US.

 

[Rudyduu]

In the late 1950s, the US was responsible for half the manufactured goods in the entire world, and even today China's per-capita GDP is less than a quarter of the US's.

The 50's? It's 2026. What do you think GDP represents?

 

[Endymio]

You really drank the media coolaid on USAID didn't you? any, if any at all trans operas, most of it went to creating soft power in other countries

You can't buy friends and allies, and the $190B the Biden Adminsinistration spent on USAID not only bought us nothing, in many countries it actually hurt US influence -- you think orthodox Shia Afghanis were happy to see the US dropping LGBTQ pamphlets on them?

... I personally saw large bags of US grown rice from USAID in Haiti.

You're offering the nation of Haiti as a prime example of the US benefitting from strong allies and influence abroad? Was that a joke?

Not that our money bought us anything there. Haiti today is in worse shape than when we started, and continues to devolve into sectarian violence. Oops.

That money was spent on US farmers to feed people around the world and now those US farmers aren't making nearly as much money

Oh god, not these century-outdated demand-side economic myths again. Nor is your basic premise even correct. US agricultural exports in 2024 were $176B ... the 2026 projection is $176.5B. So much for that.

...and the odds of people starving to death has significantly increased.

Ah, I understand. USAID actually wasn't benefiting the US through buying "soft power" -- it was all about saving those poor starving children!

Too bad the figures don't add up. Out of a 2023 budget of $44B, USAID only distributed less than $4B in food aid. Oops!