Why Is RAM So Expensive in 2026? Sandisk's 378% Quarter, Apple's Memory-Cost Margin Guide, and Who Pays
Memory prices in 2026, read from the companies' own filings: Micron's DRAM prices rose a high-teens percentage in one quarter and its NAND prices about 30%, Sandisk's revenue rose 378% on about 10% more exabytes, and Apple guided its December-quarter gross margin to 45% to 46% on higher memory costs after raising Mac, iPad and iPhone prices. Who sells, who pays, and what to watch.
Memory is expensive in 2026 because the companies that make it report demand from AI data centers above what they can build, and the prices in their own quarterly reports show it: Micron's DRAM prices rose a high-teens percentage and its NAND prices about 30% in a single quarter, Sandisk's revenue rose 378% from a year earlier on only about 10% more exabytes shipped, and Apple, on the buying side, guided its December-quarter gross margin to 45% to 46%, naming higher memory costs as the main reason, after raising prices on the Mac, the iPad and the iPhone.
This article reads the seller side and the buyer side as the companies describe them in releases, filings and earnings calls dated September 30 to November 2, 2026, then lists what to watch and when. It makes no forecast of memory prices; every forward statement is attributed to the company that made it. For what HBM, DRAM and NAND each do in an AI data center and which company makes which, see HBM vs DRAM vs NAND vs hard drives in AI.
Why is RAM so expensive in 2026? What the memory makers report
Four sellers reported in the five weeks to October 29. Their price statements, in their own words, and what each says about supply:
| Company (report date, quarter) | Prices, in its words | Supply and contracts, in its words |
|---|---|---|
| Micron (September 30, 2026; quarter ended September 3) | DRAM prices "increased high-teens percentage range, driven by tight DRAM industry conditions", on bit shipments up a mid-single-digit percentage. NAND prices "increased approximately 30%, driven by tight NAND industry conditions", on about 10% more bits. | Expects "supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in calendar 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026." 26 strategic customer agreements cover an estimated 35% or more of revenue through 2030, with $32 billion of customer financial commitments, "the vast majority of which are cash deposits." Calendar 2027 HBM supply is agreed "with significant price increases year over year." |
| SK hynix (October 28, 2026; Q3) | "Prices of key products have risen on the back of growing demand for AI memory." Revenue KRW 104.6 trillion, operating profit KRW 83.3 trillion, an 80% operating margin. | "Expects the structure in which demand exceeds supply to persist through 2030." Long-term agreements cover "more than 50% of total production capacity for 2027 and 2028", priced through "a mechanism that reflects market conditions within a price range agreed upon with customers." |
| Samsung Electronics (October 29, 2026; Q3) | "Strong demand momentum for servers led to higher market prices across all applications." The Memory Business set all-time quarterly highs for revenue and operating profit "amid capacity constraints." | For 2027, "increasing AI-driven demand will far exceed the industry supply in comparison with 2026." |
| Sandisk (October 29, 2026; quarter ended October 2) | Revenue up 378% on almost 10% more exabytes. Revenue per gigabyte up almost 320% in Datacenter and more than 450% in Edge. | Expects "AI-driven demand to persist through calendar year 2027 and beyond." $1.6 billion of customer security deposits held under multi-year agreements. |
Three of the four make HBM, the stacked DRAM that sits beside the AI chip: Micron, SK hynix and Samsung, whose release reports significantly scaled-up HBM4 sales. Sandisk makes NAND flash through its joint ventures with Kioxia, buys DRAM as a component and makes no HBM.
Two things to hold onto while reading that table. Every statement comes from the company that sets the price, so a forecast there is a forecast, not a measured outcome. And the margins underneath are where the price went: Micron's non-GAAP gross margin was 87.0% in the quarter (86.8% GAAP), guided to about 86.25% for the next; Sandisk's GAAP gross margin was 85.0%, up from 29.8% a year earlier; SK hynix's operating margin was 80%.
Did Sandisk's revenue rise on price or volume?
Price. The 378% headline came with a volume line most coverage skipped: in the 10-Q filed October 30, Sandisk says total products sold rose almost 10% in exabytes. The rest of the gain is revenue per gigabyte, and the filing states it by end market.
| End market | Revenue, vs a year earlier | Exabytes sold | Revenue per gigabyte | Sandisk's stated cause |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datacenter (enterprise SSDs) | $4.80B vs $269M | up almost 330% | up almost 320% | "primarily due to higher sales and higher pricing" |
| Edge (flash in PCs, phones, consoles, cars) | $5.83B vs $1.39B, up 320% | down 20% | up more than 450% | "primarily due to higher pricing" |
| Consumer (retail cards and drives) | $397M vs $652M, down 39% | down more than 70% | up more than 110% | "primarily due to lower sales" |
| Total | $11.03B vs $2.31B, up 378% | up almost 10% | not stated company-wide | gross margin "primarily due to a higher revenue per gigabyte and an increase in exabytes sold" |
Datacenter is the only end market where volume and price both rose. Edge, the biggest segment by revenue, shipped 20% fewer exabytes and earned more than five times as much per gigabyte; Consumer shipped less than a third of the prior year's volume. Company-wide revenue per gigabyte more than quadrupled, which is our arithmetic from the two stated figures (revenue up 4.78 times on 1.10 times the exabytes), not a figure Sandisk prints.
The quarter's gross margin moved with the price: 85.0% GAAP against 29.8% a year earlier and 84.6% in the prior quarter. Sandisk's guide for the quarter ending in January is revenue of $12.2 billion to $12.6 billion, 11% to 14% above the quarter just reported (sequential growth was 23% in this one), at a non-GAAP gross margin of 84.5% to 85.5%, flat. The 10-Q also records what customers are paying to secure supply: refund liabilities of $1.6 billion, mostly security deposits collected under the multi-year agreements Sandisk calls New Business Models, and contract liabilities of $1.5 billion, mostly payments in advance under them.
Sandisk also announced an eight-for-one stock split that day, which changes the share count and not the business; the split dates and the full read of the quarter are in our Original, Sandisk stock split: the 378% quarter was price, not volume.
How do memory costs affect Apple? The buyer's side
Apple reported its fiscal fourth quarter on November 2, 2026: revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12% from a year earlier and a September-quarter record, with a gross margin of 47.9% that included about one percentage point from tariff refunds. The memory story is in the guide and the call.
The guide. CFO Kevan Parekh: December-quarter revenue growth of 7% to 10% year over year, "which reflects our best view of constrained supply", and gross margin "between 45% and 46%. This includes primarily the impact of higher memory costs, as well as some costs related to the ramp of Siri AI." Against the September quarter's 47.9%, that is two to three points lower, or one to two points after the tariff refunds are set aside. Parekh, asked about it again: "we expect most of that decline to be driven by higher memory costs." On the quarter just reported, he said the roughly one-point sequential change in margin "was driven entirely by memory impacts."
The price. CEO John Ternus: "What we're seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented." And later: "these memory prices are unprecedented, and so that has put pressure on our prices." Parekh said Apple "did reluctantly make the decision to change pricing on a number of our products, starting with the iPad and Mac in the June timeframe and then iPhone more recently in September." Ternus said those increases "provided some offset" to higher memory costs in the December quarter.
The inventory. Ternus: "We also expect to see some benefit from carry-in inventory in the December quarter," and "we do believe we will see a decreasing benefit from the carry-in inventory on memory over time. Looking beyond the December quarter, we see the pricing for memory purchases continuing to increase." The balance sheet in the release shows inventories of $14.5 billion on September 26, 2026, against $5.7 billion a year earlier; the cash-flow statement shows inventory absorbing $8.9 billion of cash over the fiscal year, against $1.4 billion released the year before. Apple does not say in the release what the inventory is made of. Reading it as memory bought ahead of price increases rests on Ternus's "carry-in inventory on memory" and is our reading, labelled as such.
The commitments. Ternus: "our manufacturing purchase obligations have increased by $33 billion from June to the September quarter, which you'll see in our annual filing when it comes out tomorrow." That filing is the Form 10-K due November 3, 2026. COO Sabih Khan on the supply side of the same number: "for the December quarter, we expect constraints on Mac and iPad, and it's primarily driven by memory."
And still a record. Parekh on the December quarter: "We expect this to be the best quarter for revenue in the history of the company." The memory cost is a margin story, not a demand story, in Apple's own framing. The full read of the quarter, including iPhone Duo and the touchscreen MacBook Pro, is in our Original, Apple earnings: a record quarter, a memory-cost margin guide.
Who pays for the AI memory boom?
Put the two sides together and the companies' own numbers describe the transfer. Four parties pay:
- The memory makers collect it as margin. Micron's gross margin was 87.0%, Sandisk's 85.0%, SK hynix's operating margin 80%. Micron's prepared remarks say its sequential margin gain "was driven primarily by higher pricing and strong execution"; Sandisk's 10-Q attributes its gross margin to "a higher revenue per gigabyte."
- Large buyers pay in advance to secure supply. Micron holds $32 billion of customer financial commitments, mostly cash deposits, under agreements running to 2030 and in some cases 2031, and says any new pricing discussions "are negotiated with higher pricing based on prevailing market conditions and outlook." SK hynix has more than half of its 2027 and 2028 capacity under long-term agreements. Sandisk holds $1.6 billion of customer security deposits. Apple added $33 billion of manufacturing purchase obligations in one quarter.
- Device buyers pay part of it at the register. Apple raised prices on the Mac and the iPad at the end of June and on the iPhone in September, and its CEO ties those increases to memory prices.
- The device maker's margin absorbs the rest. Apple's gross margin guide of 45% to 46% for the December quarter, with "most of that decline" attributed to memory costs, is the part the price increases did not cover.
| Side | Company | Latest reported margin | Next-quarter guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller | Micron | 87.0% non-GAAP gross margin (quarter ended September 3) | about 86.25% |
| Seller | Sandisk | 85.0% GAAP gross margin (quarter ended October 2) | 84.5% to 85.5% non-GAAP |
| Seller | SK hynix | 80% operating margin (Q3 2026) | not guided in the release |
| Buyer | Apple | 47.9% gross margin (quarter ended September 26), about one point of it tariff refunds | 45% to 46% |
The table compares different measures (two gross margins, one operating margin, GAAP and non-GAAP as each company reports them) and is read as direction, not as a ranking.
What to watch, and when
- November 3, 2026: Apple's Form 10-K. The purchase obligations Ternus put at $33 billion higher, the contractual commitments table and the inventory note: the only one of these numbers that will arrive with a breakdown.
- November 9, 19 and 20: Sandisk's split. Record date, share issue after the close, and split-adjusted trading from the open on November 20 under the same ticker. A unit change; the business numbers above are unaffected.
- Late November: the PC makers. Dell and HP report their October quarters in late November in most years; neither had confirmed a date as of November 2. Their margin guides are the next buyer-side reading after Apple's.
- December: Micron's fiscal first quarter 2027, the quarter ending in early December, guided to a record $61.5 billion plus or minus $1.5 billion at about 86.25% gross margin. Micron usually reports before Christmas; the date was not announced as of November 2. Its prepared remarks carry the cleanest quarterly read of DRAM and NAND prices from any seller.
- Early 2027: Sandisk's December quarter and the 10-Q behind it. Exabytes sold and revenue per gigabyte by end market, and the deposit lines. Datacenter volume rising at a steady price would read differently from price rising on falling volume, which is what Edge and Consumer showed this time.
- Late January 2027: SK hynix and Samsung's fourth quarters, if they keep their usual timetables, the first update to the 2027 supply statements both made in October.
No sign-up required. See Apple's earnings, filings and news on its SentiSense page, live →
Next, one tier up the same chain, from the data center to the lab's margin and the lenders: Who pays for AI data centers? Nvidia's $105 billion OpenAI guarantee, Anthropic's $5 billion quarter of short-term compute, and who carries the debt.
Sources
All read November 2, 2026.
- Apple Inc., fiscal fourth quarter 2026 results, November 2, 2026: Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K (revenue, gross margin, balance sheet and cash-flow statement). Earnings call of November 2, 2026, 5 pm ET: transcript on MarketBeat and Six Colors. The Form 10-K Ternus referred to is due November 3, 2026.
- Sandisk Corporation, fiscal first quarter 2027 results, October 29, 2026: press release; Form 8-K, October 29, 2026, Item 8.01 (the split); Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 2, 2026, filed October 30, 2026, MD&A (exabytes and revenue per gigabyte by end market, gross profit) and the notes on contract and refund liabilities.
- Micron Technology, fiscal fourth quarter 2026 results, September 30, 2026: press release (gross margin, guidance) and prepared remarks (DRAM and NAND pricing, strategic customer agreements, HBM supply, market outlook).
- SK hynix, third quarter 2026 results, October 28, 2026 (revenue, operating profit, pricing, long-term agreements, supply outlook; the release notes its figures are preliminary).
- Samsung Electronics, third quarter 2026 results, October 29, 2026 (Memory Business).
- Earnings dates for Dell, HP and Micron: SentiSense earnings calendar, November 2, 2026, all listed as not yet confirmed.
Figures are as stated in the documents above on November 2, 2026; Sandisk's per-share figures are pre-split. Every forecast quoted is the named company's own and can change. This article is educational and is not investment advice.