My Recent RAM Upgrade Just Quadrupled in Price. Here's Why I'm Not Mad.

Last summer, the workstation I use for writing these articles felt sluggish. You know how it goes, right? I'm using the same web browsers and word processor as always, but every page comes with a dozen traffic trackers and a bunch of ads that weren't there five years ago, when I last upgraded my computer memory. It was time for a couple of new memory sticks in my Frankenbox with parts acquired and upgraded in waves between 2010 and 2022.

Image source: Getty Images.

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A well-timed memory upgrade

So I ordered 64 gigabytes of DDR4 memory in October 2025, tripling the memory capacity. It cost $95 with free shipping from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and I could have gotten a similar deal from Newegg (NASDAQ: NEGG) or Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). It was the right medicine, and this old Linux box has been smooth as silk in the past four months.

Out of pure curiosity, I checked what the same memory upgrade would cost me today. The Amazon listing jumped to $450. People are buying used ones on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) for $250 or more. I could make a significant profit by reselling this 2023 product, designed for an outdated generation of processors and motherboards.

As a longtime computer enthusiast with a college-aged gamer in the family, this makes me cringe. But it sure feels good to own Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) stock in this era of upside-down price trends for computer memory.

Blame the AI data centers

You see, the soaring prices of consumer-grade memory sticks are a side effect of a broader market trend. I'm sure you know the drill already, but it goes like this:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) titans like OpenAI, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) are building massive data centers to train and operate their AI platforms.
• These systems require a ton of memory. One Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) GB300 NVL72 rack ships with 17 terabytes of DDR5 and 20 terabytes of even faster high bandwidth memory (HBM). My 64 GB of slower memory chips may be plenty for a writing workstation or even a gaming PC, but it's less than 0.2% of that single AI computing system's memory needs.
• One GB300 rack has an enormous amount of computing power, but the real giants don't stop there. For instance, Microsoft added a cluster of 64 of these systems to the Windows Azure cloud-computing service. My pair of memory sticks isn't even a rounding error in this vast memory pool.
• Nvidia and others are selling these AI accelerators as fast as they can make them. As a result, there's nearly bottomless demand for high-end memory chips for the AI industry. The Big 3 memory makers -- Micron, Samsung (OTC: SSNLF), and SK Hynix -- are also selling chips before they're even made. Micron has already sold out its expected 2026 production volume, with some contracts locking down supplies in 2027 and 2028.

The trickle-down effect hits your desktop

This game-changing demand for AI-related hardware has cascading effects on the broader computer hardware market. Micron retired its Crucial consumer brand after 30 years, giving more manufacturing capacity to the hot-selling HBM products.

The current-generation DDR5 memory is almost an afterthought at this point, with minimal production and a large amount of even that memory class going into AI systems. But people still use computers, so the store shelves are growing barren. To work around DDR5 shortages, many PC buyers and system builders are going back to the older DDR4 standard, which is good enough for many everyday purposes.

I already showed you how that trend moves the DDR4 pricing needle.

Why I'm smiling at the checkout line

So memory prices are up, and will probably stay there for at least a couple of years while Micron and its rivals build more manufacturing lines. The financial results are staggering. Micron's Q1 2026 sales rose 57% year over year, more limited by chip-making capacity than customer demand:

"In the medium term, we are only able to meet about 50% to two-thirds of our demand from several key customers," CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in December's Q1 2026 earnings call.

So I may wince on the way to Best Buy the next time I need some computer memory. But the smile will return when I remember that the modest Micron position I started in the summer of 2011 is up 5,400% so far. That's an average total return of 31.5% per year for nearly 15 years.

And the stock looks ready to keep rising. Micron trades at just 9.1 times forward earnings estimates today. I strongly recommend picking up some Micron stock.

Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Micron Technology, Newegg Commerce, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Best Buy, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Nvidia, and eBay. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.