PC shipments set to hit the buffers as AI guzzles memory

Memory shortages will likely stunt PC shipments in 2026, as available supplies will not be able to meet demand thanks to memory makers chasing the lucrative AI infrastructure market instead.

Overall PC market performance in 2025 was healthy, according to research biz Omdia, but it notes that memory and storage supply was already tightening, with associated upward price pressure emerging around the middle of last year.

By December, PC vendors were signaling their expectations of price increases, and this is dampening expectations for the volume of shipments during 2026.

 "Between Q1 and Q4 2025, mainstream PC memory and storage costs rose by 40 percent to 70 percent, resulting in cost increases being passed through to customers," said Omdia Principal Analyst Ben Yeh.

As The Register recently reported, shortages are being caused by the memory chip manufacturers reallocating manufacturing capacity to output more of the high-margin server DRAM and High Bandwidth ...