The price of your next laptop upgrade may have less to do with exchange rates and more to do with a hyperscale data centre in Texas.
South African IT distributor Esquire Technologies says the global shortage of memory and storage components is pushing up local tech prices, with increases already filtering through across PCs, notebooks and enterprise systems.
“A major contributor to the current memory shortage is the rapid expansion of AI-focused data centres, particularly in the United States,” says Mahomed Cassim, CEO of Esquire Technologies. “These facilities are consuming enormous volumes of DRAM, SSDs, and high-capacity hard disk drives, with stock being purchased and deployed at scale. This has significantly reduced availability for traditional commercial and consumer markets.”
In other words, the same chips that power a cloud-based AI model are the ones that sit inside a mid-range notebook in Sandton or a small business server in Polokwane. And the former is getting priority.
Prices moving upstream
Esquire says it absorbed some increases in December and early January, but new stock arriving from late January onwards reflects higher landed costs.
The increases begin at component level. DRAM and NAND flash pricing has risen at manufacturer level, allocations have tightened, and lead times have stretched. By the time those parts are assembled into finished devices and shipped to South Africa, distributors face a cost base that is materially higher than it was a few months ago.
Kabir Ismail, general manager at Esquire, says the impact is most visible in products that rely heavily on memory and storage.
“We’ve seen the most significant impact in PC components such as RAM modules and SSDs, followed closely by notebooks, desktops, and enterprise servers,” says Ismail. “High-performance and higher-capacity configurations are particularly affected, as these are the same components being prioritised for AI and hyperscale data centre deployments.”
Esquire estimates average price increases of:
- 25% to 40% on memory components such as RAM, SSDs and hard drives
- 15% to 25% on notebooks and desktops
- 20% to 40% on servers and enterprise systems
Entry-level devices have seen smaller jumps, while premium and performance-focused configurations have borne the brunt.
For a consumer, that may mean a few thousand rand more for a well-specced notebook. For a business rolling out hundreds of PCs or refreshing server infrastructure, the numbers scale fast.
A transition, not a collapse
International data centre research firm DC Byte argues that the current RAM shortage reflects a structural transition rather than a breakdown in supply.
In a recent analysis, DC Byte says: “The RAM shortage is a transition, not a breakdown,” pointing to a shift in manufacturing priorities towards high-bandwidth and AI-optimised memory, rather than the collapse of production capacity.
The firm notes that demand from AI and hyperscale operators has surged at a pace that traditional supply chains were not configured to handle. Manufacturers have redirected capacity towards higher-margin, AI-oriented products, which has tightened supply for mainstream applications.
DC Byte also highlights that large cloud and AI operators are securing supply through long-term agreements and bulk procurement, effectively ring-fencing inventory before it reaches the broader market. The result is that availability for conventional enterprise and consumer segments tightens, and pricing follows.
This aligns with what local distributors are seeing: constrained allocations and limited room to negotiate.
The currency cushion – but only just
A relatively weaker US dollar has provided some offset against component-level increases, but the relief has been partial and inconsistent. Exchange rate movements can trim the edge off a price rise, yet they cannot neutralise a global supply-demand imbalance.
Cassim says pricing pressure is likely to continue through at least the first half of 2026. Expanded manufacturing capacity and supply chain adjustments may ease conditions later in the year, but a return to pre-shortage pricing levels is unlikely in the near term.
“Even as supply improves, we expect prices to settle at a new normal rather than reverting to historic lows,” says Cassim.
That phrase – new normal – is overused in business commentary. Here, it carries weight. AI infrastructure investment is reshaping how semiconductor capacity is allocated. Memory is no longer just a commodity input for PCs and servers; it is a strategic enabler for AI training and inference at global scale.
What it means for buyers
For consumers, delaying a purchase in the hope of a quick correction may not deliver the expected relief. While short-term fluctuations will occur, the structural shift towards AI-driven demand is unlikely to reverse.
For businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises operating on tight IT budgets, the timing of refresh cycles becomes critical. Buying earlier in a rising market can limit exposure to further increases, but holding off may allow supply to stabilise if manufacturing catches up faster than expected.
The shortage also underscores how deeply local pricing is tied to global infrastructure decisions. A procurement strategy in California can influence the sticker price in Cape Town within weeks.
South Africa’s tech market has weathered component shortages before, from hard drive supply shocks to pandemic-era logistics snarls. What makes this cycle different is that it is driven by expansion rather than disruption: a race to build AI capacity that is absorbing memory at scale.
For now, that race is being run in data centres far from South Africa’s retail floors. The bill, however, is showing up here.
* AGGIE Z GATEMAND is an AI bot that uses platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic Claude to write her articles.