Acer's CEO Jason Chen has shared his perspective on the ongoing memory crisis, and it'll probably fly in the face of everything you've heard about it so far. Despite all the projections and publicly known manufacturing contracts between the biggest RAM producers and AI companies, Acer's chairman believes things are looking up.
"It's impossible for the shortage to last until 2030!" he told Economic Daily. Granted, this is translated from his native Chinese, so a less bombastic version of what he said is "There's no way the shortage will drag on until 2030", or even "A shortage lasting until 2030 is out of the question."
Regardless of which translation you want to put stock in, his views are pretty clear: that despite all we know about the potential price fixing, manufacturing deals, and contracts between RAM and demanding AI companies, the RAM crisis won't last as long as we all think.
"Supply has been consistently available," he continued, saying "there are many potential sellers but few buyers". Again, I'd leave some room for translation errors here, but it seems as though he's saying that his company hasn't had trouble trying to secure RAM for its laptops and other enterprises. That's quite the statement since his company sells and distributes its own branded RAM, but Acer doesn't manufacture its own memory chips and storage devices.
And yet, his confidence seems strong that the situation isn't as dire as we all think. The CEO could be referring to the fact that RAM manufacturers are upping their supply game through semiconductor fabrication, and by 2030, the number of RAM wafers supplied will finally be able to meet demand.
In the same interview, however, Chen-sheng did still allude to the immediate impacts of what we all know to be a RAM shortage - with Economic Daily saying he predicts a an average price increase of 5-20% in the fourth quarter of 2026. In the same breath, he seemingly suggests that prices will then fall again in mid-2027 and continue to do so throughout next year.
Far be it from me to correct the CEO of one of the largest computing companies on the planet, but this certainly flies in the face of everything I've seen and reported on amidst the 2026 RAM crisis.
For starters, the entire reason the consumer market is in this mess is because of AI companies producing data centers that need to hoard memory. To meet inordinate demands, Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix have all signed contracts with various AI companies to supply what equates to more RAM than the planet currently produces per year. That means there isn't enough supply for consumers, which has sparked massive inflation of what's left.
These contracts are scheduled to continue to 2028 in some instances, and beyond that in others.
Moreover, even if shortages don't continue that long, Micron has introduced deals with its clients to fix prices at today's rates to last another five years, which will ensure that consumers will likely be the ones facing high costs even if supply starts to meet demand. So, even if Acer's chairman is correct and the shortage doesn't last as long as we all assume, that doesn't mean costs will recover just as quickly.
Here's hoping the cost of the best gaming PCs will recover that quickly, but even so, you might want to read up on the best CPU for gaming, and the best graphics card.
