The head of one of the world’s largest PC vendors has given buyers a timeline for when the memory-driven price spiral finally breaks.
Acer chairman and chief executive Jason Chen expects retail PC prices to climb 5 to 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2026, with machines carrying more memory or storage taking the steeper increases. Prices should peak around the middle of next year, he said, before gradually easing.
Chen was blunt about the shortage narrative, asking how memory could possibly stay short forever. He said DDR4 and standard DDR5 supply is now ample, with DDR4 prices even beginning to slip, and that CPU availability is largely normal outside some entry-level and mid-range parts. Only high-end specifications remain genuinely tight.
The catch is timing. Even if component costs fall early next year, lower procurement prices take months to work through manufacturing, shipping and retail. That lag is why finished-goods prices are not expected to reflect relief until the end of 2027.
Chen also flagged demand damage from the run-up. Acer has already seen sales slow and consumer appetite shrink as prices moved. New memory capacity arriving around mid-2027, plus expanding Chinese output, should finally loosen the market.
PCs now account for roughly half of Acer’s business, with the company pursuing a broader multi-engine strategy.
