Memory improvement: purchase prices for computers increased by 10%
Purchase prices for computers have increased by 10%, and shipments at the new cost have already been contracted, Izvestia learned. This increase will reach stores in early 2026, it will amount to about 5-10%, retailers, manufacturers and distributors said. This is due to the increase in prices for memory chips on the global market — in less than six months they have risen in price by 1.5–2 times. Experts do not rule out changes in the cost of other gadgets, such as smartphones. For example, budget devices in the price range of 7-15 thousand may rise in price by 2.5–5 thousand rubles.
How much has RAM become more expensive
At the beginning of 2026, the retail price of computer equipment may increase by about 10% compared to the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2025, a source at one of the distributors and a manager of one of the PC manufacturers told Izvestia. This is due to a similar increase in purchase prices for them.
According to Izvestia's interlocutors, the shipments purchased at the new prices are already on their way to Russia — they will reach the shelves after the New Year holidays. The upcoming price increase of about 10% was also confirmed by a source close to one of the retailers. Izvestia's interlocutors agree that the increase in purchase prices was the result of a rapid increase in the cost of RAM for PCs on the global market.
— According to manufacturers, the cost of a memory kit for one laptop [of the average price category] will increase by about $100 due to the growing global demand, primarily due to the development of AI models and the general increase in demand for components. This will inevitably affect the final prices of laptops," the source in the retail segment is confident.
He predicts a price increase towards the end of the first quarter.
There is a situation in the Russian market where total sales are decreasing, and unit prices are rising, said Irina Babina, head of the Notebook business at diHouse.
— In addition, manufacturers have already raised the prices of components for computers and laptops, which will lead to an increase in the price of the final product by about 10% at the beginning of next year. Lots of goods at new prices will appear on store shelves after the New Year holidays, Irina Babina predicts.
Participants in the Russian and global electronics markets began to record a rapid increase in PC memory prices in the second half of this year. According to estimates by the Commercial Times, from the beginning of 2025 to the third quarter, prices for memory chips increased by more than 170%, an unprecedented jump. For example, in September Samsung raised the prices of a number of memory chips by 60% at once. According to PC Part Picker, the price of a set of DDR5 memory modules, which was about $125 in September, exceeded $250 by early November. Such dynamics leads to an increase in the cost of finished electronics, vendors admit. In particular, last week, its president Lu Weibing warned about the upcoming price increase for Xiaomi gadgets.
The price increase by 10% will be after the New Year, and shipments of goods purchased at new prices are already on their way to Russia, Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, confirmed to Izvestia.
— There is a boom in demand for artificial intelligence-related services in the world. For their operation, you need equipment, such as servers equipped with modern memory. Its manufacturers are increasing shipments of such chips, and the production of modules of previous generations, which are used in PCs and laptops and which cost more, is decreasing," the expert said.
Hence their scarcity and the rapid increase in cost.
What else is pushing computer prices up
The rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies in the last few years has accelerated the demand for processors capable of processing large amounts of data at high speed. But servers with such powerful processors need high-performance memory chips, explained Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research. The demand for HBM class memory (high bandwidth memory, memory chips with high bandwidth) is also growing. Such chips are produced by the same companies, but it is much more profitable to make HBM chips, Leonid Konik noted.
— The latest class of HBM4 chips, which provide data transfer speeds of 8-10 Gbit/s, manufacturers (in particular, Micron and SK hynix) sell for $550-560, their capacity is 24-36 GB. A 32 GB regular RAM (DDR4) will cost $80-200, despite the fact that over the past six months these prices have skyrocketed by 40-50%," the expert gave an example.
If manufacturers can still provide the required amount of memory supplies, then the increase in prices for it will have a greater impact on budget smartphones and laptops, Leonid Konik added. According to him, in these devices, memory chips account for 10-15% of the cost, and taking into account the rise in price of chips, their prices will increase by $ 30-60. In the Russian reality, budget smartphones in the price range of 7-15 thousand rubles may rise in price by 2.5–5 thousand rubles, he did not rule out.
In the company "Svyaz.HE" agrees that in 2026, prices for appliances and electronics in Russia may rise. They will be affected by the continued high key interest rate, which limits lending, currency fluctuations, and other factors.
However, not all market participants are afraid of a strong increase in PC prices.
— We still do not see any prerequisites for a significant increase in prices for electronics in January. Only a slight increase to 5% is possible," Fplus told Izvestia. — Buyers will feel the increase in selling prices for imported electronics only after a few months next year and not to the full extent.
As a rule, retailers raise prices gradually, rather than simultaneously, so as not to scare off customers, the source said.
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