Is AI Tax nearing? Here’s why 2026 smartphone and PC upgrade may get 20% more expensive

The global tech economy is currently facing a major structural shift due to the growing demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. However, to power AI models, companies are demanding High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), requiring more wafer capacity, which is used to make DRAM. Now, manufacturers have started to prioritise  AI-grade chips over DRAM, causing a memory shortage for smartphones and PCs. Industry experts predict this shortage could drive up the pricing of consumer electronic products by 5 to 20% in 2026.

Reportedly, companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, the three biggest memory-chip manufacturers, have already sold out their HBM capacity for 2026 to meet demand for AI companies like NVIDIA and OpenAI. Now, an IDC report predicts that the AI data centres will need huge amounts of memory, and the shortage will continue until at least 2027.

This shift will also affect consumers as the cost of laptops, phones, PCs, and game consoles is also expected to rise in 2026, and upgrading RAM or storage could get more expensive. The report highlighted, “For consumers and enterprises alike, this signals the end of an era of cheap, abundant memory and storage, at least in the medium term.”

Now, to maintain the pricing and keep the sales numbers intact, Smartphone and AI PC brands may launch devices with specification cuts in 2026. For instance, a 16GB RAM model may stick to 12GB of RAM storage to stay within the budget. In addition, this may also delay buyers' decision to buy a new device in the upcoming months.

Several laptop brands, including Asus and Dell, have already announced price hikes for higher memory variants, starting this month. Dell is said to plan a price increase from $55 to $765, which may significantly impact the affordability of "AI PCs" and high-end gaming laptops.