Strong AI Demand Fuels Structural Memory Price Surge as Lenovo Warns High Costs Are the New Normal

The rapid expansion of generative AI and high-performance computing is driving demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, in AI servers. HBM shares some production capacity and supply-chain resources with conventional DRAM, creating a crowding-out effect that has also spread to NAND flash memory. The memory market is consequently shifting from a short-term cycle to a structural supply-demand imbalance.

Lenovo recently warned at an international supercomputing conference that high memory prices could persist beyond 2030, with costs gradually passed on to consumer electronics such as PCs and smartphones. Lenovo did not disclose specific price increases, amounts or effective dates. It said AI servers would continue to absorb HBM capacity, ultimately leaving consumers to pay higher prices.