The artificial intelligence boom is causing prices and the memory supply chain to go out of control. In the first twenty days of August 2026, the export price of DRAM memory produced in South Korea reached the huge figure of $92,183 per kilogram (around 127 million won). To put this into perspective, today one kilogram of these chips is worth almost the same as 620 grams of pure 24-karat gold.
Data from the Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Institute (TRASS) shows a 401% year-on-year increase in the value of DRAM memory. Compared with January 2023, when the AI boom was only beginning after the birth of ChatGPT, the price has increased by 12.5 times. The main reason for this has been the huge demand for infrastructure for data centers and advanced AI models, an area dominated by a small number of manufacturers such as SK hynix, Samsung and Micron.
AI Demand Pushes DRAM to $92,183 per Kilogram
This bottleneck is already affecting the entire technology industry. Giants such as Apple are looking at desperate alternatives to reduce costs, even going as far as looking for suppliers in China such as CXMT. Meanwhile, the video game industry and PC makers are feeling the full impact. Brands such as MSI have been forced to launch laptops that combine DDR5 memory with older DDR4 memory to keep prices competitive.
Even the latest servers equipped with advanced Nvidia GPUs could become between 15% and 17% more expensive because of how much memory now adds to the total cost of components.
Meanwhile, the South Korean giants are approving special bonuses for their employees thanks to profit margins that few would have imagined just a couple of years ago. What was once a very basic component has literally become the new gold of the digital age.
