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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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