South African know-how retailers are warning shoppers and companies to brace for additional value hikes on key laptop parts as a world scarcity pushed by AI demand squeezes provide of reminiscence chips, solid-state drives and graphics playing cards.
Three of the nation’s on-line retailers – Evetech, Dreamware Know-how and Tech.co.za – have instructed TechCentral that the shortages are already extreme and more likely to worsen within the months forward, with RAM bearing the brunt of the ache for shoppers.
DDR5 reminiscence costs have surged by as a lot as 230% over the previous quarter, in keeping with Evetech, whereas even legacy DDR4 modules – which one would possibly anticipate to be cheaper – have climbed 150-200% as producers shift manufacturing capability away from older requirements. SSDs are up 35-50%, spinning-platter laborious drives 5-15% and GPUs 10-20%, with additional will increase anticipated.
Dreamware director and co-founder Brent Raftopoulos painted a equally stark image. “RAM has taken the brunt of the affect, with pricing growing by over 200% because the scarcity began,” he stated. “For example, RAM that was promoting for R2 400 earlier than the scarcity is promoting for round R7 300 now, which is a dramatic improve.”
The basis trigger is structural and world. The world’s main reminiscence chip producers – Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron – have redirected manufacturing capability in the direction of high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) and enterprise-grade parts wanted to energy the AI knowledge centre buildout being pushed by firms comparable to Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta Platforms.
Worse to come back
Shopper-grade parts have turn out to be, as Raftopoulos put it, an afterthought. “With main flash reminiscence factories prioritising all AI {hardware}, the much less profitable gaming and shopper merchandise have taken a large again seat.”
Evetech echoed this evaluation. “Reminiscence producers have redirected capability in the direction of AI knowledge centre merchandise – HBM, enterprise SSDs – as a result of the margins are considerably greater. Shopper-grade parts have turn out to be a decrease precedence,” the corporate stated.
Learn: World GPU scarcity set to deepen gaming business woes
All three retailers expressed concern that present shelf costs don’t but totally mirror the severity of the scarcity.
Evetech warned that “present shelf pricing doesn’t totally mirror what it prices us to interchange inventory” and stated business analysts are projecting costs to peak across the second quarter of 2026. “Customers ought to realistically anticipate one other 30-50% on reminiscence and storage as present stock sells by way of.”
Tech.co.za MD Theo Papaioannou stated the will increase to this point have felt “preemptive, even opportunistic”, starting from 20% to as a lot as 100% relying on the part. Extra regarding, he stated, is what lies forward. “There are some provide constraints in the meanwhile, however extra worrying is that distributors are telling us that a few of their future orders have been cancelled. The majority of the shortages haven’t began but in our view.”
Raftopoulos stated the image is sophisticated by the knock-on results throughout the provision chain. “HDDs (laborious disk drives) haven’t had as extreme a rise but, however the shortages are undoubtedly evident, with nearly all of frequent drives bought out. One can assume this can result in value will increase in future.” On GPUs, he famous that some South African distributors had the foresight to order giant portions earlier than the crunch took maintain, quickly mitigating value will increase – although flagship fashions such because the Nvidia RTX 5090 stay troublesome to supply.
There are additionally rumours of CPU value will increase on the horizon, Raftopoulos added.
The shortages are already altering buying behaviour. Evetech stated it’s seeing extra prospects go for DDR4 platforms – comparable to AMD’s AM4 or Intel’s twelfth/Thirteenth-generation chipsets – to sidestep DDR5 prices. “We’re getting extra requests for minimal-spec builds with plans to improve later. Enterprise prospects are accelerating purchases to lock in present pricing. And there’s rising curiosity in upgrading present methods moderately than doing full rebuilds.”
Dreamware has noticed an identical development. “We’ve typically observed prospects who’re upgrading in the meanwhile choosing decrease capacities of RAM. Both that, or they downgrade to DDR4,” Raftopoulos stated. “Even giant firms have been opting to carry off on upgrades to keep away from the present pricing.”
Rand positive aspects worn out
Papaioannou stated companies have fewer choices to down-spec than shoppers. “We see companies choosing to postpone pointless purchases. Customers are choosing decrease specs however we wouldn’t say at a fantastic fee. We see much less frivolous gadget gross sales, however the laptop computer and part gross sales proceed equally as earlier than for now.”
Not one of the retailers reported important uptake of device-as-a-service or leasing fashions domestically. “South African shoppers and SMEs nonetheless want to personal their {hardware} outright,” Evetech stated.
One would possibly anticipate the rand’s relative power in latest months to offer some cushion. It hasn’t. The scarcity is so extreme that any forex positive aspects have been worn out.
Learn: Chip scarcity hits PCs as AI swallows the world’s reminiscence provide
“We have been anticipating some higher costs because the rand strengthened, however these positive aspects have been wiped by the worldwide shortages,” Papaioannou stated.
Evetech estimated that present pricing stress is roughly 70-80% pushed by world elements and 20-30% by change fee volatility. “When world US greenback costs soar 50% and the rand weakens on high of that, the native affect compounds.”
Raftopoulos famous that South Africa’s place within the world allocation pecking order makes issues worse. “South Africa sits very low on the pecking order for world allocations of inventory, with areas such because the US, UK, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Canada having first selection on any inventory that comes out of the factories. Something left – which inevitably is the costlier and fewer fascinating inventory – is then supplied to the South African market.”
The retailers supplied blended however broadly cautious recommendation. Evetech was essentially the most direct: “Should you want {hardware} within the subsequent six months, don’t wait. There are early indicators of spot costs stabilising in some markets, however contract costs are nonetheless climbing and significant reduction isn’t anticipated till late 2026 on the earliest.”
Papaioannou drew a distinction between shoppers and companies. “Customers can wait it out. Companies which have {hardware} deployments coming in 2026 have to safe inventory now. There’s a threat of value will increase, however the better threat is of no inventory availability in South Africa.”
Raftopoulos took a extra philosophical method, cautioning in opposition to attempting to time the market. “I wouldn’t really feel comfy advising anybody proper now on what they need to particularly do; there may be benefit to either side of the argument,” he stated. “I personally really feel that anybody shopping for now shouldn’t be attempting to ‘beat the scarcity’. Somewhat, they need to attempt to settle for that their buy both now or later will likely be on the value it’s at and never concentrate on whether or not they’re paying roughly than the typical within the shortages. That approach, you keep away from the dreaded purchaser’s regret.”
For the South African tech business, the message is evident: the AI growth’s starvation for silicon is being felt removed from AI knowledge centres, and there’s no fast repair in sight. – Reporting with help from Duncan McLeod, © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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