The global memory and storage market is entering another challenging period, which will have a direct impact on businesses buying servers, RAM and enterprise storage.
Prices remain under pressure, but understanding what is driving the market can help businesses plan ahead and avoid unnecessary costs.
Recent reports suggest that this isn’t a short-term supply issue. Memory manufacturers are already allocating production well into 2027, while demand from AI, hyperscale cloud infrastructure and data centres continue to absorb huge amounts of available manufacturing capacity.
According to TrendForce, Samsung accounted for 38.5% of global DRAM revenue in Q1 2026, SK Hynix for 28.8%, and Micron for 22.4%. Together, the three manufacturers represent approximately 89.7% of the market.
For server buyers, decisions made by these manufacturers about production and capacity have a direct influence on the availability and cost of DDR4 and DDR5 server memory.
Why 2027 Is Becoming the Bigger Concern
The memory market has already seen significant price increases during 2026.
TrendForce reported that DRAM contract prices increased by approximately 93-98% quarter on quarter in Q1 2026. Supplier inventories remained extremely low heading into Q2, while additional production was increasingly being directed towards high-capacity RDIMMs for AI servers.
Manufacturers are investing in new capacity, but semiconductor production cannot be increased overnight.
TrendForce expects additional DRAM capacity to come online during 2027, although increases may not arrive until the second half of the year, with some larger investments not expected to make a difference until 2028.
At the same time, manufacturers continue to report strong demand and tight supply. Samsung expects the wider memory market to remain undersupplied; SK Hynix has said customer demand is exceeding its available supply capacity, and Micron has warned that tight DRAM and NAND conditions could continue beyond 2027.
This doesn’t mean RAM prices will rise continuously, but it does suggest that it may take longer than expected for supply to catch up with demand.
AI Is Taking a Bigger Share of Memory Supply
AI is one of the biggest reasons behind the current pressure.
Large AI and data-centre deployments require huge amounts of memory, including both High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and conventional server DRAM.
That matters even if your business has no plans to buy an AI server. DDR4 and DDR5 server RAM still comes from the same global DRAM industry, so growing demand for AI infrastructure can affect the wider market.
What About SSD Prices?
Enterprise SSD pricing is also worth watching, although DRAM and NAND should not be treated as the same market.
TrendForce expects strong enterprise SSD price increases during Q1 2026, driven by demand from cloud and data-centre customers. However, additional NAND production could ease supply conditions during the second half of 2027.
So while enterprise storage prices remain important, the clearest supply concern going into 2027 is currently server RAM.
What Does This Mean for ServerSource Customers?
For ServerSource customers, changes in DRAM pricing are most noticeable on high-memory server configurations.
A server may contain 16, 24 or more RDIMMs. If the acquisition cost of each module increases, that difference can quickly add up across the full configuration.
The impact is likely to be felt most on configurations requiring large quantities of 64GB, 128GB and higher-capacity RDIMMs.
ServerSource stocks a wide range of Dell PowerEdge servers and enterprise memory, giving customers the option to compare different generations, capacities and configurations rather than relying solely on the latest new hardware.
What Should Server Buyers Do Next?
No one can say exactly what a 64GB or 128GB DDR4 or DDR5 RDIMM will cost next year.
What the current evidence does show is that DRAM supply will likely remain tight as we move into 2027.
For businesses with a server refresh, RAM upgrade or infrastructure expansion planned, the sensible response is not panic buying. It is earlier planning.
Reviewing requirements now gives businesses more time to compare configurations, consider refurbished options and secure suitable hardware when the right stock becomes available. Put simply, today’s price may not be tomorrow’s price, and a price available now may not be the same weeks or months from now.
If you have an infrastructure project planned for late 2026 or 2027, speak to ServerSource about your requirements early. Planning ahead could make a significant difference to both cost and availability.
