Far from heralding a technological golden era, artificial intelligence is presenting PC hardware with its toughest challenges in years. As enormous, ultra-wealthy tech corporations embark on constructing resource-demanding AI data centers in pursuit of future riches, the subsequent memory chip deficiencies have sparked a surge in consumer pricing for RAM modules, graphics cards, SSDs, and even legacy hard drives.
You might assume that doubling or tripling retail expenditures without impacting sales would delight numerous gaming equipment manufacturers—particularly their finance divisions. However, as those chips have turned into a limited resource at the supplier stage, even larger hardware firms are feeling the pressure, and it’s evident. Razer is uncertain about the pricing of their upcoming laptops. Valve is depleting its Steam Deck inventory and postponing the new Steam Machine. Zotac Korea labeled the RAM scarcity an existential risk. But what about the smaller entities in the industry—those makers of niche products, the unconventional, the retro?