AI Boom Could Drive Consumer Electronics Prices Up 50%, Phison Chief Warns

Memory price pressures

Pua Khein‑Seng, CEO of Phison Electronics, warned that the AI-driven surge in demand for advanced memory could push consumer electronics prices sharply higher, possibly by as much as 50%, as makers pivot to higher-margin parts such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR5.

Free Malaysia Today reports Pua’s view that manufacturers are shifting toward these more profitable memory products.

IEEE Spectrum documents the market pressure behind the shift, noting that AI hardware demand is soaking up memory manufacturing capacity and that contract memory prices could rise up to 95% in Q1 2026 according to TrendForce.

Together, these accounts frame a supply-side squeeze where product-mix shifts and soaring memory costs threaten to raise retail prices across low-margin consumer devices.

HBM market pressures

Phison’s CEO highlighted HBM's growing role in AI workloads because of its very high data-transfer speeds.

Phison’s CEO warned that much of the consumer electronics market remains tied to older parts, a structural mismatch.

That mismatch amplifies price and availability pressures for mainstream devices.

Free Malaysia Today quotes Pua saying HBM is increasingly used in AI but that the consumer market still depends on older parts.

IEEE Spectrum explains how AI hardware is consuming memory fab capacity, creating a market where advanced memory is scarce and conventional memory prices spike, squeezing manufacturers who serve low-cost segments.

Rising memory cost impacts

IEEE Spectrum provides concrete examples of how rising memory costs are already affecting low‑cost computing products.

It cites the Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB) rising from $120 in November 2025 to $205.

It cites an Orange Pi 5B (16 GB) jumping from $160 to $312.

It cites multiple memory-related price hikes from vendors like Framework.

Those examples illustrate the consumer‑facing consequences that Pua’s supply‑side observation implies: when memory is a large share of a device’s bill of materials, big increases in DRAM/flash prices can translate directly into steep retail price hikes or reduced availability for budget devices.

Memory supply responses

Industry responses vary: IEEE Spectrum reports some PC makers offering bring‑your‑own‑RAM options and single‑board computer designers (including Raspberry Pi) changing board layouts to ease sourcing.

Larger companies can blunt price shocks with long contracts or stockpiles.

Phison’s pivot toward higher‑margin memory products is itself a supplier strategy that aligns with those responses.

Both sources make clear there is no easy fix for low‑margin consumer segments — they will either pass costs to customers, accept thinner margins, or face shortages.

Memory price coverage summary

The two pieces together paint a consistent but incomplete picture: Phison’s CEO emphasizes supplier strategy and the technical drivers behind a shift to HBM/DDR5, while IEEE Spectrum provides market measurements and consumer examples showing how memory scarcity causes price shocks for low‑cost devices.

Because only these two sources were provided, coverage differences are limited to a supplier perspective (Free Malaysia Today, Asian) versus market‑data and consumer examples (IEEE Spectrum, Other).

The claim of "up to 50%" consumer price rises is plausible within the sources' reporting on memory price surges, but the articles do not offer a comprehensive, independently calculated nationwide or global retail price model, so uncertainty remains.