laptop computer
ASUS, Lenovo, Dell, HP, and Acer are all warning of 15-20% price hikes due to supply shortages. (PHOTO: Jay Nlper/Unsplash)

Your next laptop is set to cost significantly more, and artificial intelligence (AI) is largely to blame.

ASUS has officially announced price adjustments for certain products effective from 5 January 2026, citing surging memory costs and supply volatility driven by AI demand. In a letter dated 30 December 2025, ASUS Systems Business Group General Manager Liao Yi-Xiang acknowledged that structural shifts in the global supply chain are exerting 'sustained upward pressure' on key components, particularly DRAM and NAND storage.

'These changes reflect shifts in capacity allocation by upstream suppliers, higher investment costs for advanced manufacturing processes, and structural supply gaps created by rising AI compute demand,' ASUS stated in the letter to partners and customers.

The announcement comes just days before CES 2026, where ASUS will unveil new hardware to an audience now bracing for steeper price tags.

Why Your Next PC Will Cost More

The AI boom has fundamentally reshaped the memory market in ways that directly impact everyday consumers. Major manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology now prioritise high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centres over standard DRAM used in laptops and smartphones.

Research firm IDC describes this as a potentially permanent, strategic reallocation of the world's silicon wafer capacity. 'Every wafer allocated to an HBM stack for an Nvidia GPU is a wafer denied to the LPDDR5X module of a mid-range smartphone or the SSD of a consumer laptop,' IDC analysts explained in December.

TrendForce reports that DRAM price indices have surged by 70%. Gerry Chen, General Manager of TeamGroup, told DigiTimes that contract prices for certain categories of DRAM and NAND increased between 80% and 100% month-on-month in December alone.

Industry-Wide Scramble

ASUS is not alone in raising prices. IDC confirms that Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, and ASUS have all warned clients of 15-20% price hikes and contract resets in response to tightening supply.

Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke told Bloomberg in November that he has 'never seen memory-chip costs rise this fast,' describing the situation as 'unprecedented'. Lenovo has notified customers that all current quotations will expire on 1 January 2026. HP Chief Executive Enrique Lores warned that the second half of 2026 could be especially challenging, noting that memory now accounts for 15% to 18% of a typical PC's production cost—roughly double what it represented last year.

IDC's cautious outlook projects that average PC selling prices could increase by 6% to 8% in 2026, with the overall market potentially contracting by up to 8.9%.

What This Means for You

For consumers, the timing could not be worse. The shortage coincides with Microsoft's end-of-life cycle for Windows 10 and the heavily marketed push towards AI-enabled PCs, which ironically require even more memory to operate. Microsoft's Copilot+ requirements specify a minimum of 16GB, with premium configurations targeting 32GB or higher.

Gerry Chen warns that the crisis may not ease until 2027 or 2028, when new manufacturing capacity finally comes online. Building a new semiconductor fabrication facility demands billions of dollars in investment and several years of construction.

For those contemplating a laptop purchase, the consensus among industry analysts is clear: buying sooner rather than later may prove to be the wiser financial decision. The uncomfortable reality is that consumers never asked for an AI revolution, yet they are increasingly the ones footing the bill.

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