The RAMpocalypse won't end until late 2027, and there could be an SSD apocalypse, too

Now that memory chips are being sold like lobsters in a restaurant (prices are so volatile that every day, it's a different price!), we should ask ourselves: when is it all going to end? The RAM shortage, I mean, not life itself.

Without getting too philosophical about it, it's clear that the RAMpocalypse, as the current situation has been labeled, will end once the demand has been met by memory chipmakers… or when RAM is not so sought after.

Given that the AI bubble just keeps getting inflated and data centers are so hot they could make presidents invade other countries' territory, I don't think the latter will happen anytime soon. So, we're left with the former: we need more RAM chips and we need'em desperately.

Micron's announcement

Micron is one of the world's largest chipmakers and it's being reported that it'll get bigger: the company will rush to build a $24 billion chip plant in Singapore.

Don't hold your breath, as this plant won't materialize overnight. For us, smartphone users, the sooner the RAMpocalypse ends, the less likely it will be for handsets to get slammed with price hikes.

The news comes amid an industry scramble to build AI infrastructure that has left sectors from consumer electronics to AI service providers battling a severe scarcity of all types of memory chips.

The Singapore facility will be a long-term investment that will help meet rising demand for NAND memory, but the company expects wafer production to start in the second half of 2028. The plant will be huge, with more than 700,000 square feet of cleanroom space.

Most of Micron's flash memory is already made in Singapore, where it is also building a $7 billion packaging plant for high-bandwidth memory used in AI chips, set to begin production in 2027.

The SSD apocalypse is looming on the horizon

Analysts warn that memory shortages could last until late 2027, even as Micron and rivals like Samsung and SK Hynix push ahead with new capacity. With demand running ahead of supply, enterprise SSD prices are expected to jump sharply in the coming months as well.

This could drive prices of consumer electronics higher.

Meanwhile, SK Hynix plans to open a new factory in Yongin, South Korea, three months earlier than planned and start production at another fab in Cheongju next month to meet rising global memory demand.

That's nice and all, but don't be surprised if phone prices do skyrocket (which could make the smartphone market sag in 2026) in the near future. That's why we said 2026 is the year to buy old phones.