RAMageddon: Qualcomm planning 'double-digit' price increases

The general perception of RAMageddon has been, for a while now, that it will get worse before it gets better. Qualcomm is seemingly confirming that.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the chip maker, whose chips can be found in all of Samsung's new foldables, Windows laptops, and smartwatches, has reportedly told clients to expect a price increase on its products for anything shipped after Sept. 1. The specific size of the price increase is not known at this time, but Bloomberg said it will be a percentage in the double digits, so it's not a small one.

All of this, of course, was attributed to rising memory component costs due to the AI spending spree. AI companies are in the midst of a huge data center construction boom, and the industry requires massive amounts of memory. This phenomenon, commonly called RAMageddon, has contributed to a wave of price increases across the tech industry, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

In our previous reporting on the global memory crisis, experts have told Mashable the situation will likely get worse before it gets better. International Data Corporation research manager Jitesh Ubrani told Mashable earlier this year that relief will likely not happen until at least 2028, and even then, don't expect much.

"The memory supply will remain tight from a device's perspective for the remainder of 2026 and well into 2027," Ubrani told Mashable in May. "We will see some alleviation in 2028, but keep in mind that prices will continue to rise throughout. And even in 2028, assuming this new [memory] capacity comes online and is able to provide some alleviation, we don't see device prices dropping significantly."

In other words: Ouch. Not good.