AI memory crunch may raise budget smartphone and PC prices worldwide in 2026 sales

Budget and mid-tier smartphones, PCs and storage devices could cost more in 2026 because of the steep rise in the demand for mechanised memory.

With every major AI company — Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft — focusing on building massive data centres to train and run AI models, the demand for memory, a staple of data servers, is also increasing. Random Access Memory (RAM) is, at the same time, a crucial component of any modern PC,