dell The Madness has begun

[MyPC8MyBrain]

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I got notified on my end this morning. RAM and storage manufacturing costs are increasing next month. This isn’t something that is only going to affect Dell, it’s across every industry.  Everyone is set to get hit with the same cost increases because these components come from the same global suppliers.

Even though your server doesn’t have drives in the configuration, the system itself still uses components that fall under the new pricing model such as the ram. I wanted to mention this to you because you will notice the pricing on the server is not the same as what it has been in previous quotes. This is the new pricing model that I was able to get to after a lot of back and forth with our financing dept.

This is from our Dell business sales manager letting me know that they now need to increase the price for a single 16GB stick of RAM included in our server config by additional $400 for that single RAM stick that already was quoted at around $360+.

looks like manufactures and vendors wants us to pay inflated rates created by the current AI-driven market panic they themselves created.

[Aaron44126]

This has been brewing for a while.

 

More demand = higher prices. They're going to sell their inventory at the highest price possible, and AI companies are willing to pay a lot, it seems like.

 

Also, other market shifts.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/after-nearly-30-years-crucial-will-stop-selling-ram-to-consumers/

 

New fabs are being set up to try to meet the demand, but that's a years-long process.

 

Maybe the AI bubble will burst eventually. I'm just glad that I'm not in a spot to want to buy a new system or upgrade anything right now.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

That isn’t “market adjustment.” It’s straight exploitation. Vendors are offloading their AI-driven supply issues onto end users.
They’re the ones pouring billions into AI buildouts and creating this demand spike; now they’re trying to make consumers eat the cost.
 

And let’s be honest; Dell’s RAM was already inflated at roughly triple the real value. Adding another $400 overnight for the same 16 GB stick is outrageous.
They’re not buying new stock at panic-pricing today; they’re sitting on inventory. This move is nothing but opportunistic markup, and it’s aggravating to watch.

[Aaron44126]

Yeah, I get the way that the rep framed the price hike to you is gross. I think it is really the Dell bean counters "exploiting" as you say, realizing that they can sell the RAM at a higher price so they're going to do it. (They would have to raise prices eventually as their upstream source for memory starts to cost more, but that hasn't happened yet for stuff they have already purchased and have in inventory.)

 

Not just Dell, anywhere you look RAM prices are up 2×-4× since summertime.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

The funny part is we’ve got multiple servers on order and ten times that number in Dell workstations coming in.
Not a single workstation config had a RAM price hike. Only the servers did.
 

So the “global supply increase” explanation doesn’t hold water. If this were a universal memory cost jump, it would hit every line across the board. Instead, they selectively bumped server RAM; where margins are already padded and customers are easier to corner. That tells me this isn’t supply pressure; it’s opportunistic pricing.

[Aaron44126]

Just saw this fun headline.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2998935/ram-is-so-expensive-samsung-wont-even-sell-it-to-samsung.html

[MyPC8MyBrain]

Yeah, I saw that headline too. This AI frenzy is out of control.
By the time the average non-tech person realizes what’s happening, the damage will already be baked in.
Prices never snap back 50% in a few months; once they ratchet up, they stay there.
 

If this keeps going unchecked, it’s going to wreck the entire market. Everyone pays for the hype except the companies driving it.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

We’ve had our share of global “races” before - atomic, space, take your pick. The difference is those had a finish line. AI doesn’t.
This one just keeps accelerating with no defined endpoint, and the collateral damage gets pushed onto everyone else.

No one actually seems to know what the end goal is here. There’s no clear technological milestone that advances humanity; just financial greed and FOMO. These companies aren’t betting on a defined outcome; they’re betting on “not missing out,” and all of it revolves around endlessly training bigger models with no finish line. It’s a blind arms race that burns resources and drives prices up for everyone else.

The newer crowd pushed the old guard aside, and the whole thing is being driven by this generation’s obsession with FOMO.
It’s not discipline, strategy, or long-term vision; it’s reactionary hype, and the industry is paying the price for it.