Smartphone, gaming console prices surge globally amid memory chip shortage - VnExpress International

The global semiconductor industry is facing a severe shortage of memory chips, directly driving up prices for consumer electronics such as smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles. Microsoft's latest... Read original →

This memory shortage isn't cyclical—it's a structural imbalance triggered by explosive AI data center demand. Foundries like TSMC in Taiwan, China are prioritizing 3nm and EUV capacity for HBM and AI inference chips, starving consumer electronics of DRAM and NAND allocation. Apple and Microsoft have no choice but to pass on costs; the iPhone 18 Pro’s rumored $1,299 price reflects supply chain security yielding to AI-driven capital efficiency. Samsung and SK Hynix are reallocating mature-node lines to high-bandwidth memory, yet new fabs need 2–3 years to ramp—shortages will persist. U.S. CHIPS Act subsidies focus on logic, neglecting memory, worsening global misallocation. Over the next 12–24 months, consumer devices will enter a 'high-price, lower-spec' era. Only vertically integrated players with in-house memory controllers (e.g., Apple) will retain pricing power, while TSMC’s CoWoS capacity remains locked by NVIDIA, indirectly throttling smartphone SoC output.