Micron CEO Warns Memory Shortage Will Get Worse Through 2028

Micron's CEO says memory and storage supply will be much tighter in 2027 and 2028 than in 2026, driven by AI demand. That means continued price hikes for PC and console hardware.

Ever tried to buy a new GPU or a stick of RAM lately and felt your wallet scream? Well, bad news: Micron's CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says the memory crunch is only going to get worse over the next couple of years.

During Micron's Q4 earnings call, Mehrotra didn't mince words. "Industry demand has strengthened since our last earnings call," he said, "and we expect memory and storage supply demand conditions to be much tighter in fiscal 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026." He repeated that message multiple times throughout the call, making sure nobody missed it. "We expect memory and storage supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in calendar 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026," he said again. And again: "As we noted, in calendar 2027 as well as 2028, we see demand exceeding supply." He even admitted, "We have shared with you that we do not see line of sight when supply catches up with demand." Okay, we get it.

The main culprit? AI, of course. Growing demand for AI agents, bigger models, and larger context windows are all driving memory needs through the roof. And it's not just Micron. Samsung issued a similar warning this week: HBM demand is surging, and it's expected to eat up another 10% of Samsung's capacity next year. Since Samsung's total capacity is finite and new fabs take ages to build, that means less DRAM for everyone else. As Mehrotra explained, "We see continuing tight supply conditions because, first of all, clean rooms take a long while to build. Even after they are built, even after first wafer output, production ramps up only gradually in the clean rooms. That's just the nature of what it takes to bring up production."

So what does this mean for you? If you're planning to upgrade your gaming rig or buy a new console in the next few years, expect to pay more. The price rises that are already biting will continue to bite throughout 2027 and 2028. That's bad news for upcoming product launches and their MSRPs. We're expecting two new generations of graphics cards (Vera Rubin and RDNA 5), two next-gen consoles, and a pile of CPUs from Intel and AMD in that timeframe. None of them will be cheap if memory keeps getting more expensive.

But not everyone is convinced. Acer's CEO reportedly said it's "impossible for the shortage to last until 2030" and suggested some of this is just messaging to keep margins high and share prices plump. Michael Burry of 'The Big Short' fame also weighed in, suggesting the AI bubble may burst sooner rather than later, citing the Acer CEO's comments and accelerating timelines for the shortage coming to an end.

So who do you believe? The memory makers warning of tight supply, or the skeptics saying it's all hype? Either way, your next PC build might hurt a little more than you'd like. What do you think—are you holding off on upgrades, or biting the bullet now?