Memory Companies Have Destroyed the Consumer Market

Major memory manufacturers including Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix have shifted toward long-term contracts with large customers, effectively breaking the cyclical pricing model and starving the consumer market of affordable memory. This strategy has caused dramatic price increases across SSDs and RAM—with some components rising over 400%—while pushing consumers toward cloud services as companies like Amazon capitalize on inflated hardware costs. The shift disproportionately impacts both casual consumers and small businesses attempting to build affordable computing systems.