Consumers face a widening affordability crisis in consumer electronics as prices for laptops, smartphones, and gaming consoles surge due to an "AI tax"—a cost burden driven by competition for memory components diverted to artificial intelligence data centers. The trend shows no signs of reversing, according to reporting by Tim Biggs on April 3, 2026.
The price increases are substantial and accelerating. Popular consumer laptops have seen price rises approaching $1,000 over the past four years. Samsung's Galaxy S26 smartphone costs $300 more than its S22 model. Sony increased the PlayStation 5 price in Australia to $1,000 on Thursday—a $250 jump from its 2020 launch price of $750. The Xbox Ally X handheld PC, which uses 8000MHz RAM, experienced a mid-cycle price increase from $1,600 to $1,800.
The Root Cause: Memory Shortage and Competing Demands
Random-access memory (RAM) is a fundamental component in all computing devices, storing data for actively used applications for rapid CPU access. Most RAM is manufactured by two major suppliers in South Korea. The demand from new AI data centers for high-bandwidth memory has fundamentally shifted production priorities, with high-bandwidth memory for AI hyperscalers consuming approximately three times the wafer capacity of consumer DRAM.
OpenAI's Stargate project—a plan for massive data centers in the United States now at risk—was recently estimated to consume 40 percent of the global RAM capacity. A recent analyst report from Counterpoint stated that "the market is witnessing a full-throttle upward trend across all segments."
Consequently, many new devices are currently at their lowest price point for the next few years, even if they are more expensive than their 2024 equivalents. Sticks of RAM and graphics cards for do-it-yourself PCs have doubled in price and continue to rise. Some non-volatile memory like SD cards are also affected.
Who Bears the Burden
The impacts extend across the consumer technology market. Annually refreshed products such as laptops and smartphones are expected to be more expensive each year and may experience mid-cycle price increases. New game console releases are being delayed, and existing models are likely to see price hikes.
Microsoft has mandated that laptops must have at least 16GB of RAM to be branded a Copilot+ PC and access Windows AI features, which has largely eliminated the market for basic sub-$1,000 8GB laptops—though Apple has recently launched one. This requirement, while framed as a technology standard, effectively prices out consumers seeking affordable computing devices.
Demonstration of advanced AI graphics technology requires extraordinary resources. Nvidia's DLSS 5 technology, designed to make video games run faster, appeared to take creative license with faces, inventing details like wrinkles, makeup, and hair texture, making characters resemble AI-generated photos. The demonstration of DLSS 5 required two RTX 5090 graphics cards, each currently valued at approximately $7,000.
Why This Matters:
The "AI tax" represents a structural inequality in technological access. When consumer device prices rise sharply due to corporate competition for computing resources, lower-income households face exclusion from essential technologies—laptops for education, smartphones for employment and communication, gaming consoles for leisure. The shift of manufacturing capacity toward AI data centers reflects market priorities rather than democratic choices about resource allocation. No public deliberation determined that artificial intelligence infrastructure should consume 40 percent of global RAM capacity while consumers face escalating prices for basic computing devices. This dynamic illustrates how private corporate decisions, made without public input, can constrain access to technologies increasingly essential for full participation in society. The durability of these price increases—with analysts projecting no relief in sight—suggests a permanent reordering of consumer technology affordability driven by corporate AI investment strategies rather than consumer demand or public need.