Chinese tech giant Lenovo has warned that computer RAM prices will never return to their former levels.
Company officials presenting at the ISC 2026 conference in San Sebastian, Spain, said, with a touch of humor but a clear message, that RAM prices will "never return to last year's levels."
Lenovo stated that current price levels are the new normal and that prices could stabilize from 2030 onwards, but will likely remain higher than previous years.
Although memory manufacturers are racing to open new factories to meet increased demand and lower prices, demand is so high that new facilities from giants like SK Hynix and Samsung are not enough to bring prices down.
The price of DDR5 32 GB RAM modules has risen to $400, from around $70 previously.
Class-action lawsuit against RAM giants
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit filed by three companies and 14 individuals has accused the world's largest memory manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of "conspiring" to fix RAM prices.
The lawsuit alleges that these three companies restricted production of commercial DRAM memory to focus on the production of less profitable high-bandwidth memory (HBM), thereby artificially inflating prices.
It is noted that these three companies, which control over 90 percent of the global RAM market, have caused memory prices to increase by approximately 700 percent over the past four years.
The lawsuit also recalls that the same companies were found to have engaged in "criminal conspiracy" to fix the prices of memory sold to U.S. firms between 1998 and 2002, with Samsung paying a $300 million fine, Hynix paying $185 million, and Micron avoiding punishment by reporting the conspiracy.
The class action seeks a permanent court order to remedy the ongoing effects of the companies' conduct, described as "illegal and anti-competitive."
The RAM crisis has led to price increases for many consumer products, including PlayStation and Xbox consoles, mobile phones, and tablets like the iPad.
