A worldwide memory chip shortage is pushing up the price of laptops, desktops and servers, and it's expected to get worse through 2027 and 2028. Here's a simple plan to stay ahead of it.
If you've noticed your last laptop quote came in higher than the one before it, you're not imagining it. The memory chips inside every laptop, desktop, server and storage box are in short supply, and the people who make them are saying it gets worse from here. Micron, one of the three companies that make most of the world's memory, told investors this month that supply will be much tighter in 2027 and 2028 than it was this year, and that more than three-quarters of its output for next year is already spoken for.
So the usual plan of holding off until prices settle doesn't work this time. Here's what's going on, and what to do about it.
The AI data centres got there first
Memory makers can only produce so much, and they've been switching their factory lines over to the high-end chips that AI data centres buy in enormous volumes. That leaves less of the ordinary memory that goes into business laptops and servers. New factories are being built, but they take years to come online, and the bulk of that new capacity isn't expected to make a difference until late 2028.
PC and server makers are paying more for what's left, and they pass that on in one of two ways. Here's what it looks like from your side of the counter:
- The same model costs more than it did six months ago. Your supplier hasn't suddenly got greedy – their cost price has moved.
- The price holds but the spec drops. Base models quietly ship with less memory or smaller drives than last year's equivalent.
- Higher-spec configurations take longer to arrive. The models with more memory are the ones in shortest supply.
- Server and storage quotes jump the most. They use far more memory and drive capacity than a laptop, so the shortage hits them hardest.
The usual workarounds cost more than they save
When budgets get tight, most businesses reach for one of a few shortcuts. Right now, each of them tends to backfire:
- ▶️ Buying the cheapest spec to save money up front. A machine with 8GB of memory running Outlook, Teams, a browser full of tabs and your line-of-business software will feel slow within a year or two, and you end up replacing it early – paying twice inside the normal lifespan.
- ▶️ Upgrading the memory in older machines instead. This used to be the cheap fix. The older type of memory most of those machines use is now being phased out of production, so it's no longer cheap or easy to find.
- ▶️ Replacing everything in one go. A big hit to cash flow, and every device then ages out together again in four or five years, putting you straight back in the same position.
- ▶️ Running everything until it dies. Unplanned replacements happen at whatever price the market is asking that week, usually with a staff member sitting idle while you wait for stock.
What to do this quarter
None of this needs a big project. It needs a list and a plan.
- ✅ Write down every device and how old it is. On a Windows PC, Settings → System → About shows the model and installed memory, and the serial number on the same screen gets you the warranty end date on the manufacturer's support site. A couple of minutes per machine.
- ✅ Sort them into three groups. Replace within six months, can safely run another year, fine for two or more. "Safely" means it still gets security updates, it's under warranty or cheap to replace, and it isn't holding up the person using it.
- ✅ Don't go below 16GB on anything new. Microsoft already requires 16GB for its Copilot+ PCs, and that's the direction everyday software is heading. A cheaper machine that's outgrown in eighteen months isn't cheaper.
- ✅ Lock in pricing for the first group now. Ask your supplier about a price hold or a staged order across the next few months rather than buying piecemeal as things fail.
- ✅ Get any 2027 server or storage replacement quoted early. If a server, NAS or backup appliance is due next year, a quote this year tells you what you're dealing with while there's still time to budget for it.
Spreading replacements across a few years also means you never face a whole-of-office refresh again, which is worth doing regardless of what the market is up to. If you'd like a hand building that list, it's part of our IT planning help, and we can quote and stage the work through our IT projects team.
- hardware
- planning
- budgeting
