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The AI explosion isn't just hurting the prices of computers and consoles  
it's coming for TVs and audio tech too

Date:
Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:01:47 +0000

Description:
Price rises could be coming for all AV tech, and budget sets may get hit
hardest

FULL STORY

What do the best DACs , the best Hi-Res Audio players , the best TVs , and 
the best soundbars all have in common? They're all facing component shortages
and price hikes  not because of tariffs, but because of the AI-driven 
shortage of memory and storage chips. And the pain's going to be particularly
pronounced at the more affordable end of the market, where profit margins are
already razor-thin. 

As you're no doubt aware, the AI industry is buying a lot of memory for its
data centers: as Reuters reported back in October, just one AI firm, OpenAI,
intends to order 900,000 semiconductor wafers in 2029. That's around 40% of
the world's entire production. And there's plenty more demand in the 
industry. 

As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, "The rapid build-out of
infrastructure for artificial intelligence is consuming a large portion of
available supply of NAND flash memory, DRAM memory and hard drives. That has
resulted in a shortage of memory for other markets such as PCs and
smartphones." 

Audiovisual devices aren't the same as PCs, and don't typically need as much
memory as smartphones. But they still need some memory in order to do what
they do. Everything from smart speakers to smart TVs to in-car entertainment
systems use RAM alongside their processors, and some of them use NAND storage
too, because they're all just small computers at heart; both of these
components' prices are rocketing . 

We've already seen Samsung warn that its TVs' prices may rise due to
comopnents shortages , while there are warnings about smartphone makers
scaling back their specs for this year's mobile phones , cutting their memory
to cut the cost of manufacturing. 

And according to NPR , memory prices are expected to rise even more this 
year. As Avril Wu of the consultancy Trendforce told NPR, "I keep telling
everybody that if you want a device, you buy it now."

How AI could affect AV 

AI data centers don't use the same memory chips as a DAC or a Hi-Res Audio
player: they use High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), not the DDR RAM you'd find in a
PC or PlayStation. But those differing chips are made from the same kind of
semiconductor wafers, and those wafers are in ever-increasing demand because
HBM uses roughly three times more of those wafers than DDR5 RAM does. 

They're also much more profitable to sell, and as a result many firms are
shifting focus from consumer memory chips to data center ones  so for example
Micron, one of the big three memory makers alongside SK Hynix and Samsung
Electronics, has shut down its long-standing consumer memory business, 
Crucial , "to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers
in faster-growing segments". In other words, AI. 

As some manufacturers shift focus, new capacity for other kinds of memory
isn't coming on board fast enough to cover the demand. So for example in
October SK Hynix announced that it "has already secured full customer demand
for its entire DRAM and NAND production for next year", and that it'll need 
to expand its production to cope with the market demands  but even the
equipment to make the chips are set to rise in price . 

In the shorter term, that means higher memory prices. Much higher prices. 
CNBC reports that RAM prices are expected to rise "more than 50% this quarter
compared to the last quarter of 2025." And the Bloomsbury Intelligence and
Security Institute says that "DRAM prices have also surged 171% 
year-over-year , outpacing gold, while DDR5 spot prices have quadrupled since
September 2025 . DRAM and NAND prices doubled in a single month". 

While capacity is being added to existing production plants and new plants 
are being built, that capacity isn't expected to come online until 2027. 

That's likely to have two key impacts on the AV hardware market. The first is
that we'll see price increases down the line, especially at the budget end of
the market where manufacturers can't simply swallow the increased cost:
there's a lot less margin on a $300 smart TV than a $3,000 one. 

The second is that manufacturers may go back to the drawing board as some
smartphone firms have done, limiting their next products' specifications to
compensate for shortages and price hikes. It may also persuade some firms to
postpone their product plans altogether until market conditions are more
favorable. 

We've been here before, of course: I remember the completely fruitless search
for in-stock AV receivers after chip production had shut down during COVID
lockdowns. At least this time we know the component crunch is coming, and can
make purchasing plans accordingly.

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/audio/portable-media-players/the-ai-explosion-isnt-j
ust-hurting-the-prices-of-computers-and-consoles-its-coming-for-tvs-and-audio-
tech-too

$$
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