{"id":540078,"date":"2026-03-16T12:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540078\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:20:10","slug":"the-ai-boom-is-making-electronics-more-expensive-and-n-l-companies-are-feeling-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540078\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI boom is making electronics more expensive \u2014 and N.L. companies are feeling it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence is eating up the world\u2019s supply of random access memory, or RAM \u2014 an essential piece of technology in most modern devices \u2014 and experts say it is causing unprecedented price increases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shortage is already impacting how St. John\u2019s-based information technology company, Triware Technologies, does business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vice-president Chris Dillon said they resell and service IT \u2014 like computers, routers and even printers \u2014 to about 400 local companies.<\/p>\n

Speaking to CBC on March 6, Dillon said he has seen \u201chuge price fluctuations\u201d in the technology market over the last two to three months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A piece of RAM that cost them around $75 before Christmas, now costs them around $300, said Dillon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And he said the price they quoted a client for new laptops three days prior had already increased 40 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPrice fluctuations are off the charts. It’s without warning for the most part,\u201d said Dillon.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s RAM, anyway?<\/p>\n

RAM is a computer\u2019s \u201cworking memory,\u201d said Memorial University computer science associate professor Dave Churchill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think of a computer as like a desk \u2026 then RAM would sort of be how big the top of the desk is. It’s how many things you can do at the same time,\u201d said Churchill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManWilly Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, said the AI boom is soaking up the world’s RAM supply. (CBC)<\/p>\n

And Churchill said it\u2019s not just in laptops and iPads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a fancy enough microwave, I’m sure it has RAM in it somewhere.\u201d he said.\u201cPretty much anything electronic these days has some amount of RAM in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With AI demand soaring, companies like OpenAI, Meta and Google have been scrambling to build data centres that require massive amounts of high-performing RAM.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, said the \u201cAI boom\u201d is soaking up RAM supply because data centres require significantly more RAM than a conventional laptop or desktop computer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | N.L. companies say they\u2019re paying more for tech because of the global AI boom:\"\"<\/p>\n

A memory chip shortage caused by AI is having impacts on N.L. companies<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence is eating up the world\u2019s supply of RAM \u2014 a fundamental component of most modern electronics \u2014 and even companies in N.L. are feeling the impact. <\/p>\n

And because the world\u2019s three major RAM manufacturers \u2014 Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology \u2014 have allocated production to supplying these data centres, there is a shortage in the global market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we’ve seen are really unprecedented price increases for the memory that goes into your notebook computer or your office computer or your phone or your tablet,\u201d said Shih. \u201cSupply isn’t keeping up with demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is impacting everything\u2019<\/p>\n

Navigating these price increases has been stressful for Triware Technologies, as it\u2019s impacting almost every business, said Dillon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManTriware Technologies vice-president Chris Dillon says since the AI boom, price fluctuations for tech have been off the charts. (Danny Arsenault\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re dealing with companies regularly that are planning projects, refreshes, network upgrades, and this is impacting everything from budgets to lead time and to project co-ordination,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s changing how they do business with clients, said Dillon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re talking to clients about maybe even adding contingencies to their budget and their project planning just in case,\u201d he said, adding they\u2019re also coming up with financing options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gamers also spending more\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shortage will also have a direct impact on how N.L. and P.E.I.-based indie game developer Other Ocean runs its business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need these machines with a large amount of RAM \u2026 to develop the games,\u201d said product director Ryan Hale, adding they’ll also have to pay more to third party online servers that host their multiplayer games.<\/p>\n

It will also impact their customers \u2014 who may not be able to afford or even access the computers or gaming consoles they need to play the games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] affects everyone \u2026 in the gaming industry and gamers around the world,\u201d said Hale. \u201cNo one wants to spend more for their entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ManOther Ocean product director Ryan Hale says the RAM shortage will affect the gaming industry and gamers around the world. (Ken Linton\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Investors are already worried that major video game makers \u2014 like Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox or the Nintendo Switch \u2014 will push release dates or increase prices on new consoles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The gaming company Valve wrote in a February blog post that it has not been able to announce the launch date and pricing for its new Steam Machine gaming computer, due to the \u201cthe memory and storage shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for us it means [potentially] less customers overall,\u201d said Hale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a result, Hale said developers now have to consider making games that don\u2019t need top of the line computers or consoles to run in order to keep a wide customer base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you can’t have as many sparks or the really cool fire, the really cool water that you want in your game because it takes a higher end machine to run,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shih agrees with Dillon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people end up buying computers that have less memory in them, then game performance is not going to be as good,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But luckily, Shih said the problem is likely only temporary and will probably correct itself, because RAM manufacturers are already rushing to build new factories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this AI boom doesn’t slow down \u2026 we’re going to have memory chips coming out of our ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence is eating up the world\u2019s supply of random access memory, or RAM \u2014 an essential piece…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-540078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}