Samsung is making so much money thanks to the high demand for ‘AI service infrastructure’ that it’s in no rush to go back to the era of affordable hardware.
It’s easy to feel like there’s no end in sight for the ongoing memory shortages, which is responsible for making current gaming hardware increasingly expensive.
Even the Xbox Series S, once touted as one of the more affordable consoles at £299.99, will now set you back £429.99. So it’s no wonder that the likes of Project Helix and the PlayStation 6 are rumoured to cost over £1,000 at launch.
There have been some bleak predictions about how long these shortages – which include hard drives and other components – could last, with hardware manufacturer Samsung telling investors it expects things to only get worse through next year and into 2028.
That prediction is actually on the more optimistic side of things (one company suggested the crisis could last at least a decade), but it remains bad news for anyone looking to buy a new console or PC hardware – or things like a new phone.
‘We believe it will be unlikely to see any significant increase in incremental supply through 2028,’ said Samsung’s executive vice president of memory Jaejune Kim during an earnings call (per The Register).
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‘Based on the incoming requests that we have been seeing from the customers, unmet demand from this year is likely to carry over into the following year, contributing to tighter supply conditions going forward.
‘The supply constraints are expected to become even more severe in 2027 than 2026, reinforcing our view that the supply shortage will persist through 2028.’
Kim added that there is increasing demand for multiyear supply from ‘customers who want to secure substantial AI service infrastructure,’ which is why those are being prioritised.
‘These multiyear arrangements actually are aligned with our objective of hedging our mid to long-term risk. And so we have been engaging in discussions with customers, prioritising those who can guarantee committed future captive demand.’
It’s not like Samsung minds though, as the crisis is making it obscene amounts of money. Samsung has reportedly generated 171.5 trillion South Korean won (about £120 billion) in revenue for the second quarter of its fiscal year (April to June 2026), which is 130% more than the year before.
So Samsung, and other suppliers, will be perfectly happy if the crisis continues indefinitely, as they make far more money from AI data centres than they do from video game consoles.
It’s regular customers that will bet the worst of it, as new hardware becomes more and more expensive. This could force developers on PC to ensure their games can run on weaker hardware, since the likes of Nvidia have made their graphics cards more expensive.
Even non-gamers stand to be impacted since the shortages affect mobile phones, home PCs, and laptops too. If the AI bubble bursts then Samsung’s windfall will be over but the effects that will have on the economy, if it happens suddenly, don’t bear thinking about.
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