Meridiano

Add Article

No Image Available

Article Details

Title

Article: Memory price hikes ‘the new normal’ as AI boom fuels storage demand, Seagate says

Impact Score

5 / 10

AI Summary (Processed Content)

A Seagate executive states that memory price hikes are likely to be "the new normal" for the next few years, driven by an AI-fueled industry supercycle. This is due to booming demand from AI data centers, which require far more memory for graphics processors, with server DRAM prices forecast to surge a record 90% in early 2026.

The current cycle is described as unusual, moving beyond traditional patterns of shortage and oversupply. Additionally, volatile oil prices, influenced by Middle East turmoil, are cited as a significant contributing factor to rising costs.

The main topics covered are the AI boom's impact on memory demand, the forecast for sustained memory price increases, and the contributing factor of rising oil prices.

Original URL

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346104/memory-price-hikes-new-normal-ai-boom-fuels-storage-demand-seagate-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Source Feed

Tech - South China Morning Post

Published Date

2026-03-10 14:30

Fetched Date

2026-03-10 11:30

Processed Date

2026-03-10 11:32

Embedding Status

Present

Cluster ID

Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Memory price hikes ‘the new normal’ as AI boom fuels storage demand, Seagate says
Explosive growth in AI workloads is forcing the storage industry to pack more data onto disks to meet demand from cloud giants
Memory price hikes are likely to become “the new normal” for the next few years, according to an executive at storage giant Seagate Technology, as the artificial intelligence boom of the past two to three years pushes the industry into what he described as a supercycle.
“It’s hard to tell if it will last forever,” Ban-Seng Teh, Seagate’s chief commercial officer, told the South China Morning Post. The current cycle was “very unusual because in the past we went through cycles of shortage and oversupply”, he said.
The company, which mainly produces hard drives that store data on disks, had “definitely seen increasing costs” due to rising DRAM prices, Teh said, although its own usage of DRAM was “very small” compared with that of computer makers or data-centre operators.
DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, is a type of chip that allows rapid storage and retrieval of vast amounts of data.
In the first quarter of 2026, prices of server DRAM were expected to surge by around 90 per cent from the previous quarter – the steepest increase on record – according to market intelligence firm TrendForce.
The surge has been fuelled by booming demand from AI data centres, which require far more memory to feed graphics processors used in training and running large language models.
Teh said volatile oil prices driven by turmoil in the Middle East had also had a significant impact. Crude prices briefly surged to nearly US$120 a barrel on Monday, the highest level in four years, before retreating to below US$100.