Some part shortages fly under the radar. This one doesn’t. Over the last year or so, computer memory stopped behaving like a boring tech commodity. Prices spiked and lead times stretched, sometimes ridiculously for both. Consumers started noticing which devices suddenly jumped price tiers, or didn’t. The 2024–2026 global memory shortage is not a factory fire or a shipping hiccup. Capacity has been structurally reallocated toward high-margin AI and data-center use. At the same time, many...