Micron and Samsung executives have warned that the memory shortage will persist until at least 2028, with Micron’s CEO Sanjay Mehrotra expecting demand to outstrip supply over this period.

While Micron no longer sells consumer RAM, the shortage has broader implications, as manufacturing capacity is prioritised for memory used in AI and servers, limiting the supply for consumer devices.

Mehrotra highlighted that even after new clean rooms for memory manufacturing are operational in 2028, production ramps up gradually, and the transition to new memory nodes provides less productivity gain per wafer, which creates ongoing supply challenges.

Seventy-five percent of Micron’s 2027 memory output is already committed, and most of their current sales discussions are about 2028. The demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has surpassed that for Micron’s DRAM.

The situation suggests that, for now at least, our consumer devices may have to settle for what’s left after the servers and AI are fed their memory needs.