RAM Prices Already Doubled This Year. An Unconfirmed Leak Suggests Samsung Could Push Another 80% — and the UAE Would Feel It

Nobody in the memory chip business is arguing about whether prices are rising. They're arguing about how much higher they'll go — and a leaked distributor document making the rounds this month has reignited that argument in an uncomfortable way.

What's actually confirmed

The baseline facts here aren't rumor. Market researchers including TrendForce and Sigmaintell have tracked DRAM contract prices rising by roughly 90-100% quarter-over-quarter at points in 2026, with some NAND flash categories climbing 50-75% over similar windows. J.P. Morgan's research desk has estimated DRAM prices could be up more than 400% from where they stood at the start of 2024 by the end of this year. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have all posted outsized profits this year as a direct result.

The cause is well understood and not in dispute either: AI data center buildouts have pulled memory manufacturers' capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized chips that feed Nvidia and AMD's AI accelerators. Because HBM and conventional DDR5 memory are produced on related but competing production lines, every wafer redirected to HBM is reportedly coming at the expense of general-purpose RAM supply — squeezing the memory ordinary laptops, phones and game consoles depend on.

Lenovo and Dell have both already pointed to memory costs as a factor pushing hardware prices up globally, a point picked up by UAE-focused tech coverage warning that laptops sold locally could get 5-20% more expensive depending on configuration. Separate Gulf reporting on gaming handhelds like Lenovo's Legion Go 2 cites import duties stacking on top of the global shortage, pushing regional price increases potentially into the 8-10% range on top of whatever Lenovo sets internationally — though exact regional pricing from Lenovo itself remains unconfirmed.

The part that's still just a rumor

Here's where it gets murkier. Trade press in South Korea has reported — citing unnamed sources rather than official statements — that Samsung and SK Hynix are notifying major customers that server-grade DRAM could rise a further 60-70% versus where it sat in Q4 2025, with suppliers reportedly shifting to shorter, quarterly contracts that let them raise prices more often. Separately, a distributor document circulating in the channel claims Samsung is lifting prices across its memory product lines by as much as 80%. No outlet has been able to confirm that document came from Samsung directly, and Samsung has not issued public guidance confirming a figure anywhere near that size. Treat the 80% number as unverified until Samsung or a tier-one analyst firm attaches a name to it.

What is slightly more solid, though still a reported plan rather than a confirmed fact, is that Samsung is said to be pushing roughly a 20% DRAM price increase in Q3 pricing talks with partners, according to industry coverage — smaller than the leaked figure, but still a meaningful jump stacked on top of a year that's already seen prices roughly double.

Forecasts on when this ends disagree sharply. Some analysts expect the crunch to start easing in the second half of 2027; others don't see real relief until 2028. Nobody serious is predicting a quick fix.

Why this isn't just a Wall Street story

For UAE shoppers, this isn't an abstract supply-chain headline — it shows up at the till. The UAE is the largest PC market in the GCC by share, and laptops already make up roughly three-quarters of the country's PC shipments, meaning any sustained memory-driven price hike lands on a market that's unusually laptop-heavy. Regional retailers haven't published before-and-after price lists yet, and this piece found no confirmed Sharaf DG, Jumbo or Lulu pricing changes tied directly to the shortage — but the underlying cost pressure from Lenovo and Dell's own statements makes it hard to see shelves staying untouched if supplier prices move anywhere close to even the more conservative 20% figure, let alone the unverified 80% leak.

The honest summary

Confirmed: memory prices have already risen dramatically in 2026 because of AI's appetite for HBM capacity, and that's squeezing everyday DRAM and NAND supply. Reported but not independently confirmed: Samsung and SK Hynix may be preparing further double-digit to possibly triple-digit percentage hikes for late 2026, depending on which leak or trade report you believe. Pure rumor, unconfirmed by Samsung: the specific 60-80% figure attributed to a leaked distributor document.

If even the smaller, more credibly sourced numbers hold, UAE buyers eyeing a new laptop or gaming PC before year-end may want to treat "prices might only go up from here" as the safer assumption — while keeping in mind that exactly how much, and how fast, is still genuinely unsettled.