"Memory is now the most expensive component in a smartphone," explained Carl Pei, CEO for consumer tech retailer Nothing. Servers in AI data centers require what's known as high bandwidth memory, or HBM, a specialized form of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that's stacked directly beside an AI processor. Then, in December 2025, Micron announced that it would be dramatically scaling back production of consumer memory products in favor of HBM. As a result, the builders of consumer tech sellers have been left to scramble for a dwindling share of the world's conventional memory supply. As long as AI memory continues to command premium prices, manufacturers will have little incentive to shift capacity back toward conventional DRAM.