Experts warn the price of everything from smartphones to TVs is set to soar in 2026
AI is considered to be a major factor in the price hike
Experts are warning the public that the price of everything from smartphones to TVs is set to soar in 2026.
It seems that with the new year unfortunately comes new prices and a lot of devices could be set to see a hike in their costs.
A major reason for the tech product increase is down to the boom in AI.
AI requires data centers to power it which in turns needs Ram too, meaning that everyone will need to foot the bill for the added costs.
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Speaking to the BBC, Steve Mason, who is a general manager of CyberPowerPC, said: “We are being quoted costs around 500% higher than they were only a couple of months ago.”
He went on to say that there ‘will come a point’ where these added costs will ‘force’ its manufacturers to ‘make decisions about pricing.”
Mason continued: “If it uses memory, or storage, there is the potential for price increases. The manufacturers will have choices to make, as will consumers.”
Meanwhile, Danny Williams from PCSpecialist said: “The market has been very buoyant in 2025 and if memory prices do not fall back a little I would expect a reduction in consumer demand in 2026.”
He added: “Some vendors have larger inventories and therefore their price increases are more subtle at perhaps 1.5x to 2x.”
According to expert Chris Miller, who is the author of Chip War, AI is to blame for the demand increase for computer memory, describing it as being the ‘main factor’.
He explained: “There’s been a surge of demand for memory chips, driven above all by the high-end High Bandwidth Memory that AI requires. This has led to higher prices across different types of memory chips.”
And while prices do tend to fluctuate by a large margin depending on where supply and demand is at, demand is significantly up currently, according to Miller.
Mason said: “Most of the market intelligence we have received would suggest pricing and supply will be a challenge worldwide throughout 2026 into 2027.”
But what will the effect be of these inflated prices? Williams believes that it will give customers a difficult choice.
He said: “Computers are a commodity - an everyday item that people need in a modern day world.
“With the increase in memory prices, consumers will need to decide to either pay a higher price for the performance they need, or accept a compromise in a lower performing device.”