AI data centres controlled by hyperscalers including Amazon, Microsoft and Google are absorbing about half of global DRAM production, competing with PC vendors.
Amplifying the crunch is the fact that just three manufacturers (Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology) make nine in 10 memory chips. So when they redirect fabrication towards high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI compute, supply of conventional Dynamic RAM or ‘DRAM’ for user devices shrinks.
The impact of this global technology realignment became clear when Micron shuttered its Crucial consumer memory brand and its Australian operations last December. OEM device prices have already risen more than 20 per cent since October 2025, with some configurations doubling.
Industry observers are bearish about prices falling any time soon.
Gartner analyst Shrish Pant told Australian IT media that prices would stay “crazy” through at least 2027; HPE CEO Antonio Neri confirmed that “elevated prices [would] persist well into” that year.
No time to waste: Dive in before the buffer runs out
The reason many partners have not felt the full force is that Australian distributors are releasing stock bought at pre-surge prices but Dicker Data warned that buffer would exhaust around mid-year.
“We shield our channel partners from this for a period of time, until it catches up,” said Ben Johnson, Dicker Data general manager of marketing and strategy.
And it’s not just Dicker Data stocking ahead; forward-looking tech partners have over-stocked to soften the blow for their customers
“We are cushioning our customers by stocking more than we normally would,” said Seema Mahendra, marketing director at Auscomp Computers (Qld).
“So we average the cost [of sale] and soften the blow by stocking excessively.”
When stock runs out, the pain will hit deals already in train, warned experts.
Worst hit will be lucrative managed services contracts that depended: Revenue will never attach to devices that never ship, slicing into tech partners’ operating margins.
Chris Ericoli, director of NSW partner Next Technologies, has an open-book model for his big education and charity clients: Those in active tenders see vendor pricing as it moves. At the start of 2026, price rises were several times higher than vendors had warned even three months earlier.
Clients not in an active tender had no such visibility: “When we saw that, it really felt like somebody needed to show our other customers the dead canary”.
Read the report: How you can avoid the looming DRAM crunch
Dicker Data’s report, The DRAM Crisis: Navigating Volatility as a Channel Partner, identifies four steps partners should take before mid-year to sail through the disruption.
Share your pipeline. Partners who provided demand forecasts were prioritised for stock allocation. It costs nothing and materially changes where you sit in the queue when supply tightens.
Review outstanding quotes. Follow the lead of Auscomp Computers, which cut quote validity periods in line with vendors: “We’ve had to start saying to people, price is valid for seven days while stock is available; that’s based on stock on hand,” said Adrian Cross, national sales manager at Auscomp.
Talk to your top accounts now. Share with customers information they need to consider forward buying (it’s far easier now before stock depletes).
3 Ways Dicker Data helps you get your customers what they need
Dicker Data services help partners manage the DRAM crisis. Ask your rep if any of these options are appropriate to your situation:
Dicker Data Financial Services helps partners with tight cash flow especially if payment timing is the constraint.
Dicker Data’s third-party logistics service warehouses and stages stock on your behalf until it is needed.
Dicker Data’s configuration teams can recommend alternative configurations that meet customer expectations and specifications. Because solutions such as Intel’s Core Ultra 200V series (Lunar Lake) integrates memory on the CPU, it is immune to DRAM price swings (while stock lasts, see below for more information).
Landing on Lunar Lake: What a difference on-package memory makes
Intel’s Lunar Lake integrates LPDDR5X memory directly on-package in 16GB or 32GB configurations. Because Intel secured supply before the shortage took hold, channel stock is at pre-crisis prices, making Lunar Lake devices materially cheaper than comparable conventional configurations today such as Panther Lake.
Lunar Lake delivers 48 NPU TOPS, meeting the Copilot+ certification threshold, and the dedicated NPU handles AI workloads locally to ease system RAM pressure. Battery life is 15–25 hours on qualifying devices, a genuine differentiator for hybrid workers, while the Pluton chip maxes out security.
Andy Malakooti, devices go-to-market lead at Microsoft, confirmed that Lunar Lake 16GB will continue to run Copilot+ for the foreseeable future, although 32GB would provide greater memory headroom for third-party software over the long haul.
“For customers looking to delay purchases for six, 12 months, they may be worse off financially than they are today” buying a new device.
To learn more about how you can skirt the looming DRAM crisis, download the Dicker Data report.
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