The 2026 Memory Shortage Why Your Next Router Might Cost Significantly More.
Counterpoint Research has released a stark report detailing the ongoing surge in memory prices, marking yet another cycle of market volatility. According to the report, the hardest-hit hardware categories are routers and TV set-top boxes, which primarily rely on DDR4 RAM.
The Price Surge: DDR4 vs. LPDDR4
The data reveals a dramatic disparity in price hikes across different memory types over the past year:
DDR4 RAM: Prices have surged by a staggering 7x, severely impacting networking and home entertainment devices.
LPDDR4 RAM: In comparison, the mobile-grade RAM used in smartphones has seen a 3x price increase.
Impact on Consumer Networking
This "memory tax" is creating a crisis for manufacturers of budget-friendly consumer routers. A year ago, RAM accounted for a mere 3% of the total Bill of Materials (BOM). Today, that figure has ballooned to 20%. This drastic cost increase is expected to hinder the rollout of broadband services in several developing countries, as affordable hardware becomes increasingly difficult to produce.
The "Supply Hell" Continues
The outlook remains grim. Counterpoint predicts that RAM prices will continue to climb until at least June 2026. With supply shortages showing no signs of easing, the industry is bracing for a prolonged period of high costs and limited availability.
The reason for the severe shortage of DDR4 RAM is that major chip manufacturers (such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron) have shifted their production lines to focus on HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) to meet the massive demand of the AI data center market. This has led to a rapid decline in the production capacity of legacy RAM for general-purpose devices.
By 2026, the market will fully enter the DDR5 era. Many factories are beginning to retire DDR4 production lines, but the demand in the router and IoT device markets will still be for DDR4 because it is cheaper (under normal circumstances). When supply decreases but demand remains, the price skyrockets.
Geopolitical conflicts in regions that produce neon gas, which is necessary for the lithography process of memory chips, continue to hinder increased global production capacity.
The higher price has also led to a black market and the recycling of refurbished RAM chips from e-waste, which risks being used in cheap routers and affecting the long-term stability of internet signals.
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Source: Counterpoint
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