Post Date: March 2, 2026

What Do RAM and Hard Drive Shortages Mean for Your Organization in 2026?

If your organization’s computers need new RAM or hard drives in 2026, you may be forced to wait longer than usual.

The rise of artificial intelligence is significantly impacting the components that make up computers and other electronics.

Multiple reports indicate there are RAM and hard drive shortages for 2026, with two of the three hard drive manufacturers worldwide confirming they have or almost sold their quotas for 2026.

How will these shortages affect your organization? Let’s discuss.

Why are There Shortages?

Major tech companies like Google and Amazon are rushing to build AI data centers to power various AI services. The goal is to account for the growth in AI by building data centers that can handle that speculated growth.

Data centers are made up of various components you would find in a typical laptop, including RAM and hard drives.

However, the RAM and hard drives for data centers are more advanced than those for business computers.

Big tech companies are willing to pay a higher premium for the higher-quality components, so manufacturers are prioritizing their efforts on fulfilling these requests, leaving limited supplies for consumers.

Consider adding extended warranties to your organization’s computers. RAM and hard drive manufacturers are going to allocate their stock to warranty claims first, so that pool will be the last to dry up.

How Does This Affect Small Businesses?

The cost of everything is going to go up, if it hasn’t already.

For example, Dell announced price increases of 30% for corporate products, mostly targeting laptops and desktops with higher amounts of RAM or SSD storage.

However, computers are not the only product affected by these shortages. RAM and hard drives also are found in switches, smartphones, routers, firewalls and more hardware.

You’ll see price increases on more than just computers.

Our advice: Consider adding extended warranties to your organization’s computers. RAM and hard drive manufacturers are going to allocate their stock to warranty claims first, so that pool will be the last to dry up.

Furthermore, adjust your budget to account for these increases and consider buying now rather than waiting six to 12 months.

It’s the same story we saw when tariffs were announced last year. Computer manufacturers didn’t want to lose their bottom line due to these price increases, so they’ll pass the burden onto the consumer.