Planning to buy a new laptop? Hurry up, their prices will increase drastically, and the main culprit is – AI

Prices rise up to 30 percent

At the recent unveiling of the new Zenbook A16 laptop, the confirmation came from Liao Yi-hsiang, general manager of Asus’ systems division. He confirmed that the company will raise the prices of its computers on the Taiwanese market by 25 to 30 percent in the second quarter of 2026. The increase will vary depending on the model, but it’s an alarming jump that the industry hasn’t seen in a long time, reports TechRadar. Liao was clear that this was not an isolated move.

​- It’s not just Asus that’s raising prices. All Taiwanese brands will raise their prices – he said, adding that he expects component prices to remain high in the second half of the year.

His words are confirmed by other sources. Manufacturers such as Acer, MSI and Gigabyte are also preparing double-digit price increases, which are above ten percent on average. Big players like Lenovo and Dell vć have previously raised the prices of their business models, and now the wave of price increases is ready to wash over the consumer segment as well.

Why are prices skyrocketing?

The reasons for such a price tsunami are complex, but they boil down to a perfect storm of shortages of key components and huge demand from a relatively new sector. Manufacturers have so far managed to cushion the blow thanks to the stocks they created earlier, but warehouses now appear to be empty.

Memory crisis and “AI boom”

The main culprit is the price explosion of memory chips (DRAM and SSD). The example given by the Taiwanese media is striking: 32 GB of memory, a component that until recently cost about 3000 Taiwan dollars, now reaches a price of almost 20,000. This incredible growth has been fueled by the “AI boom”, or the huge demand for memory and storage generated by artificial intelligence data centers.

Since corporate clients are willing to pay a premium price, memory manufacturers are redirecting almost all of their production towards them, while only scraps remain for consumer electronics. Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron, one of the leading memory manufacturers, explained that artificial intelligence has “fundamentally repositioned memory as a strategic asset”. The problem is that AI computers need significantly more memory – while 16 to 32 GB is the norm for a standard laptop, AI configurations require 64 to 128 GB.

Problem with processors

As if the memory crisis wasn’t enough, it was followed by a shortage of processors. Both Intel and AMD are facing limited supply, which is why they have decided to prioritize more expensive mid-range and high-end processors. This automatically raises the price of the final product because there are fewer and fewer cheaper, basic processors on the market. On top of all that, Intel has announced price hikes for most of its PC processors, which will further squeeze laptop manufacturers’ margins.

What does this mean for customers?

The share of processors and memory in the total cost of laptop production jumped from 45 percent in 2025 to an estimated 58 percent in 2026. TrendForce analysts predict that the retail prices of laptops could jump up to 40 percent. In practice, this means that a laptop that until recently cost 900 euros could soon reach a price of over 1200 euros.

The segment of the most affordable devices will suffer the most. Some forecasts go so far as to predict the complete disappearance of laptops with a price below 500 euros by 2028. Due to all of the above, the message from the experts, as well as from the manufacturers themselves, is very simple: if you need a new computer, buy it as soon as possible.