Mainstream laptop prices could spike by

The PC market is being pummeled by precipitous decline and increasing component costs, with an industry analyst saying that these factors could cause laptop prices to increase by around 40%. TrendForce states that this cost increase will probably occur if producers, suppliers, and sellers were to preserve their profit levels, leading to popular versions priced at $900 reaching approximately $1,260. Such financial burdens are fueled by the continued memory and storage chip shortage, causing excessive rates, along with Intel is increasing the costs for multiple iterations of contemporary processors..

Before these shortages, RAM modules and SSDs were about 15% of the bill-of-materials of a mainstream device, with the CPU making up another 30%, for a total of 45% for these three major components. Nevertheless, current developments have resulted in this figure nearing 58%. Nevertheless, this 13% rise in expenses doesn't cover the profit margins of the whole supply chain; that’s why the retail costs for laptops are anticipated to climb far more substantially.

We’ve been hearing reports of the rising memory and storage costs since the last quarter of 2025. One key player in the storage industry even warned that the A NAND flash deficit might force complete enterprises to close permanently. Because of their inability to secure supply. Such components are currently scarce due to the significant requirements from AI hyperscalers and data centers for high-bandwidth memory and rapid storage. Since these enterprises are willing to pay top-dollar compared to the average consumer, almost all suppliers have pivoted their manufacturing capacity towards these more lucrative products.

But what many did not expect in 2026 was that the AI boom would also hit CPUs, with Intel and AMD both reporting spikes in demand, as well as server CPU shortages in China. This is largely driven by agentic AI, which requires a combination of CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and more to support its workflow. This trend is also visible in the consumer space as hobbyists trial OpenClaw, leading to extended delivery timelines for high-end Apple Mac units featuring extensive Unified Memory setups.

This is bad news for Microsoft and many laptop manufacturers, especially as many entry-level and mid-range buyers choose Windows laptops for sub-$1,000 budgets. If this price increase estimate rings true, then it would make these models no longer priced attractively versus the new M5 MacBook Air, with its $1,099 base price that comes with 16GB of Unified Memory and 512GB storage. More importantly, the just-released MacBook Neo is now giving entry-level customers an affordable device that comes in a premium package.

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