Micron Says RAM Shortage Runs to 2028 With Much Higher Prices [2026]

By Indie Kings | October 1, 2026

Updated October 1, 2026: Micron warned RAM shortages persist into 2028 and perhaps beyond, with demand exceeding supply in both 2027 and 2028, per CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on the FY 2026 earnings call as reported by The Register on October 1, 2026. Per the same report, customers will pay much higher prices next year, Q4 revenue hit $54.25 billion, and net income rose 895 percent to $85 billion. No prior post on this site covers these earnings figures.

The Register APAC editor Simon Sharwood, author of the Micron earnings report

Image: Report author Simon Sharwood. Credit: The Register.

The shortage runs to 2028 with no balance in sight

Per The Register, Mehrotra told investors Micron has already sold most of the memory it will make next year. Per the same report, his words on duration were direct: in calendar 2027 as well as 2028, demand exceeds supply, with greater tightness than in 2026, and overall the supply demand environment is only getting tighter.

Per the report, his closing line was that Micron does not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance. New factories come online in 2028, helped by planned capex of $25 billion in the first half of the new financial year, but per the report executives warned those facilities will not immediately improve availability or ease prices.

The money: revenue, margins and profit

Per The Register, all figures below come from Micron earnings announcement for FY 2026. Every number here is reported, not modeled by this site.

Metric	Figure per report	Prior year per report
Q4 revenue	$54.25 billion	$11.3 billion
Annual revenue	$133.2 billion	$37.4 billion
Net income	$85 billion, up 895 percent	Not stated
Cloud memory Q4 gross margin	83 percent	59 percent
Datacenter Q4 gross margin	90 percent	41 percent
Datacenter SSD quarterly sales	Almost $10 billion, up over 1,000 percent	Not stated
Q1 FY27 forecast revenue	$61.5 billion plus or minus $1.5 billion	Guidance, not actual
Q1 FY27 forecast gross margin	86.25 percent	Guidance, not actual

Per the report, the share price spiked then returned to its close of day price in after hours trading, which the report reads as investors having expected the growth. That is The Register interpretation, not a market fact established here.

HBM grows fastest and margins are being engineered up

Per the report, demand for high bandwidth memory for AI hardware is growing faster than demand for server DRAM. Per the same report, HBM is currently not as profitable as DRAM, and Micron is finding ways to expand HBM margins.

Per the report, Mehrotra pointed to a custom HBM4E implementation called NV-HBM with NVIDIA for next generation GPUs and NVLink fusion platforms, plus NAND opportunities in AI context memory for KV cache offload and HDD displacement. Product names and partner claims are as reported, not independently confirmed by this site.

What it means for buyers

Per the report, customers pay much higher prices next year, and Micron has already sold most of next year output. This site previously covered DDR5 at $400 for 32GB and Anthropic 2027 DRAM demand, and this earnings call is the supplier side confirmation of that same squeeze.

Buy RAM sooner if a build is planned. Per the report, 2027 and 2028 look tighter than 2026, not looser.
Expect HBM to pull supply first. Per the report, AI memory demand outpaces server DRAM, so consumer DRAM is not first in line.
Do not wait for 2028 factories. Per the report, new plants will not immediately help availability or prices.
Watch vendor margins, not just shelf prices. Per the report, 90 percent datacenter margins leave room for prices to stay high even if costs ease.

What is not verified

Single relay. All figures come via The Register reporting on the earnings call, not from Micron release documents read directly. No primary transcript was consulted.
NV-HBM and NVLink claims. The custom HBM4E implementation with NVIDIA is Mehrotra statement as relayed. No NVIDIA confirmation is cited here.
Share price reading. The spike then return interpretation is The Register, not a verified market analysis.
Image note. The verified image is the report author photo, not Micron hardware, and is captioned as such.

FAQ

How long will the RAM shortage last?

Per Micron CEO on the FY 2026 call as reported October 1, 2026, shortages persist into 2028 and perhaps beyond, with no line of sight to balance. Demand exceeds supply in both 2027 and 2028.

Will RAM prices rise in 2027?

Per the report, yes. Customers will pay much higher prices than this year, and Micron has already sold most of next year output.

How profitable is Micron right now?

Per the report, Q4 revenue was $54.25 billion against $11.3 billion a year earlier, annual revenue $133.2 billion against $37.4 billion, and net income rose 895 percent to $85 billion.

What are Micron datacenter margins?

Per the report, cloud memory Q4 gross margin was 83 percent against 59 percent last year, and core datacenter was 90 percent against 41 percent. Q1 FY27 guidance is 86.25 percent.

Will new Micron factories fix supply?

Per the report, new plants come online in 2028 with $25 billion first half capex, but executives warned they will not immediately help availability or prices.

What is NV-HBM?

Per the report, a custom HBM4E implementation with NVIDIA for next generation GPUs and NVLink fusion platforms, described by Mehrotra on the call. No independent confirmation is cited here.

Bottom Line

Micron sold next year out, guides higher prices, and sees 2027 and 2028 tighter than 2026 with no balance in sight. The financials explain why: 90 percent datacenter margins and 895 percent net income growth reward scarcity rather than punish it. Buyers waiting for relief should stop waiting, because the supplier just said relief is not scheduled.