Memory Prices Are Rising, While AI Demands More

DDR5 and DDR4 prices have surged, and overall commoditised RAM production is scaling down, disappointing gamers and IT leaders alike.

Combined with persistent GPU supply pressure and rising demand for specialised memory like High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), enterprises are feeling the squeeze just as AI and data workloads begin to demand more advanced processing power.

Lead times are increasing. Costs are rising. Hardware availability is uncertain. The RAM crisis is here.

What was once a standard refresh, upgrade, or step forward in business IT has become a strategic bottleneck.

Infrastructure Bottlenecks at the Worst Time

This is not just a procurement issue, it’s a transformation risk. Many organisations are rethinking their infrastructure roadmaps as memory and GPU inflation, lengthy lead-times and allocation issues ripple across:

  • Planned data centre upgrades and remodelling
  • AI infrastructure investments
  • AI pilot-to-production timelines
  • Enterprise-wide hardware refresh cycles

Leaders face a decision: delay innovation, or rethink how to move forward.

Cloud as a Strategic ‘Release Valve’

Hyperscalers are less exposed to current supply issues due to their massive scale, which gives them priority allocation and pricing power across DRAM and GPUs. For enterprises, this creates an opportunity:

  • Cloud environments offer access to high-performance memory and GPU capacity without inflated hardware spend
  • AI workloads can be tested, optimised and scaled without permanent lock-in
  • Clients retain the option to bring infrastructure back in-house when conditions, budgets, or data strategies align

This is not about replacing on-premises. It’s about flexibility when the market tightens. Cloud may not be the end destination, but in volatile markets, it is often the most reliable bridge.

Offsetting Pressure with Migration, Capital Recovery and Timing

RTK supports clients by accelerating transformation without overcommitting capital or delaying critical AI initiatives. This includes:

  • Unlocking constrained workloads by identifying applications stalled by hardware lead times or GPU shortages.
  • Accelerating migration to cloud or hybrid environments to sidestep near-term hardware procurement cycles.
  • Enabling capital recovery by helping clients exit data centres, colocation facilities, or support-heavy contracts.
  • Monetising legacy infrastructure through resale, repurposing or lifecycle extension, reinvesting value into transformation.

Even in a supply-constrained market, clients can move forward without locking into inflated investment cycles.

What Strategic IT Leaders Are Doing Now

CIOs, CTOs and Heads of Infrastructure are not simply reacting to supply chain pressure, they’re reassessing the fundamentals:

  • Evaluating on-premises contracts and commitments, including hardware leases, facility costs, and long-term colocation or data centre obligations, to understand where flexibility exists
  • Modelling current and future capacity needs, assessing whether existing infrastructure can support AI growth, and where constraints could affect roadmap execution
  • Understanding the impact on the balance sheet, identifying how delays, inflated procurement, or unplanned investment could trigger cost exposure or derail strategic programs
  • Using cloud tactically to maintain AI momentum, without committing to permanent relocation or overspend
  • Unlocking trapped capital, identifying legacy infrastructure that can be monetised or retired to fund forward-looking investment
  • Building transformation models that flex, developing cloud, hybrid, and in-house strategies that shift with market conditions, data needs, and financial readiness

Rethinking AI Infrastructure with RTK

RTK helps enterprises navigate the ripple effects of component volatility. We enable agile cloud adoption, intelligent infrastructure exit strategies, and flexible transformation planning that keeps options open, not locked in.

For example, RTK recently helped assisted a client to accelerate its AWS migration by monetising surplus hardware and efficiently managing refreshes, enabling faster AI workload scaling without new CapEx costs.

Whether the destination is cloud, hybrid or on-premises, our role is to make sure clients can move at the right time, with the right infrastructure and budget model in place.

Drive AI at scale, launch a cloud acceleration assessment today with an RTK specialist.