As companies race to automate and optimise, one question remains: who truly benefits from this new architecture of intelligence?
After my desktop hard drive failed, taking out my entire PC, I put off replacing it for nearly four years before finally starting to consider a new build.
The plan was simple: build an absolute beast of a machine. I’m talking a top-of-the-line RAM, a serious CPU, a graphics card that would be GTA VI ready! I budgeted around £2,500 and, like any responsible would-be PC owner, I kept an eye on my online basket for deals.
Then I checked RAM prices.
Let me tell you, nothing has stopped me cold in my tracks than staring at a computer screen and seeing something that was once priced at £500 become the entire budget for my PC.
Why has it become so expensive?
The price differentials were so absurd after a sufficient time to rage, I became curious. Why was it so expensive? As a researcher, I went on a deep dive. After several Reddit threads, Discord forums and countless news clippings, the answer was clear and damming – AI!
What does AI have to do with it?
If you’re an average consumer like me and not a tech savant, you might reasonably ask: what does AI have to do with the price of RAM?
To understand that, we need to look at two things:
- Who is driving AI demand?
- Who manufactures the components that make AI possible?
Major tech companies like Apple, Meta Platforms (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), and gaming giants such as Blizzard Entertainment and Ubisoft are investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Tools like ChatGPT are just the visible tip of a much larger infrastructure push.
These companies hope that AI will reduce the amount of money they have to pay for inconveniences like employees, but Skynet is thirsty; it requires data centres with vast rows of servers stacked with high-performance hardware. And a critical component of that is RAM.
But this doesn’t fully explain the drastic increase in price; for that, we need to understand the big players in the manufacturing of Semiconductors, which is a key component for any computer hardware, specifically RAM.
Micron Technology is an American-based company that has essentially flipped its business model on its head. Instead of creating RAM for companies and consumers, they are ONLY creating high-bandwidth memory for AI data centres! Which, in turn, makes the new and existing products on the market rarer, which means it will cost more to acquire them; you sprinkle a little panic buying from existing consumers, and the vicious cycle continues.
How does it translate to the average consumer/gamer?
For gamers, the impact is both direct and indirect.
Well, outside of the obvious one stated in the beginning, if you cast your mind back to the Lockdown when the PS5 was released, and scalpers had a field day. That was due to a pandemic that was (hopefully) a one-time deal, but with Micron doubling down on AI, that will essentially make the pandemic version of shortage child’s play.
If memory and chip production continue to shift toward AI in the long term, shortages could become structural rather than temporary. That’s a very different situation.
It may mean longer console cycles, higher launch prices, or delayed next-generation hardware. If shortages persist, we might not see new console generations at the pace we’re used to. In that context, investing in a PC now, while expensive, might ironically be the safer long-term bet.
Otherwise, we could all be stuck with ageing consoles sounding like jet engines, reminiscing about upgrade cycles that used to arrive on schedule.
Conclusion and updates
It’s hard not to feel uneasy about how rapidly AI is reshaping the tech industry. Infrastructure expansion, energy use, supply chain strain, it all has consequences that extend beyond gaming. From environmental pressures to consumer pricing, the ripple effects may not be completely revealed until it is too late.
As much as I still want that dream gaming PC, this deep dive has made me more reflective and, admittedly, a little more cynical about the direction of the industry.
That said, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Innovation doesn’t happen in just one country or one corporate boardroom. New semiconductor developments are emerging globally, including significant domestic chip initiatives in countries like China. If alternative manufacturing pipelines expand and competition increases, pricing pressures could ease over time.
For now, though, the uncomfortable reality is this: AI isn’t just changing how we write emails or generate images. It’s reshaping supply chains and quietly influencing how much it costs to play games.
And that £2,500 “dream build”? It may need a couple more zeros added to it.
Principal researcher & Co-founder of Melanin Gamers.
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