As manufacturers steer more memory capacity toward AI data centers, customers in other parts of the market are starting to feel the effects. Supply is getting tighter, long-term commitments are harder to secure and some buyers are being forced to plan around uncertainty.
Demand is rising quickly, but new supply isn’t keeping pace. Much of the industry’s investment is going into new facilities and upgrades that take years to have an impact. Industry leaders say the imbalance could last through at least 2027, with more memory supply being pulled toward AI infrastructure.
Why does that matter to anyone outside the semiconductor industry? It matters because rising memory costs are showing up in everyday products — items like laptops and smartphones, as well as vehicles and medical devices. Some analysts have described the impact as a quiet tax on the broader economy because it results in companies absorbing higher component costs or passing down the increase to their customers.
Counterpoint Research reported memory prices rose about 50% in late 2025, with projections of an additional 40% to 50% increase by mid-2026 as demand continues to outpace supply.
At the high end, AI systems and data centers are consuming a growing share of supply. Outside of that, companies are being told availability may change, or that long-term commitments can’t be guaranteed. As that happens, other parts of the memory market are adjusting. In NOR flash, still widely used across industrial and embedded systems, customers are starting to see changes in both pricing and availability.
For companies that rely on it, those changes carry real implications. These are often products with long lifecycles that depend on a consistent supply. When that stability is disrupted, companies are forced to delay production, redesign systems or absorb higher costs just to keep moving forward.
That’s where Everspin comes into play. The Chandler-based company’s MRAM can be used as an alternative to traditional flash. Its products can be configured to work in place of NOR, allowing companies to make a switch without redesigning entire systems.
Sean Dougherty, vice president of sales at Chandler-based Everspin Technologies, said that shift is already playing out across the market. “The distributors are shifting all the capacity to feed the big guys, leaving other companies with an unstable supply chain,” he says. “We are very, very happy to help customers solve this problem. We can be a second source and a confident supply source.”
Dougherty says the company isn’t trying to compete on commodity pricing. Instead, it focuses on offering an alternative for customers that need more flexibility in their supply chains. That dynamic has already started to play out in customer discussions. “Recently, we have had many conversations about how we could become a second source or a first source … should they have a problem,” he says.
What starts as a supply issue often forces bigger decisions. As companies look at alternatives, they also have to think about what happens when a key component is no longer guaranteed. The broader impact of these shifts is still unfolding.
In fact, Industry insiders are calling the current market shift “RAMageddon,” as demand for high-bandwidth memory tied to AI systems tightens global supply and pushes other buyers out of the market.
AI demand is accelerating investment, but it is also concentrating where that investment goes. As more memory capacity is directed toward AI-related demand, other parts of the market are adjusting to tighter supply and rising costs.
For companies like Everspin, this creates a window to engage customers who may not have previously considered alternatives — not necessarily because they were looking for something new, but because the market around them is changing and they need a reliable source to help them adapt.
Did You Know: MRAM is a compelling alternative to traditional memory technologies such as SRAM, DRAM and NOR flash. MRAM is non-volatile, meaning it retains data even when power is lost. While SRAM requires continuous power to retain data and is often backed by batteries that degrade over time, MRAM eliminates the need for backup components. Once data is written to MRAM, it remains securely stored without consuming additional power, reducing both system complexity and energy costs.
