Innovation

Werner Herbst, First Distribution

Paying for hardware is becoming considerably more expensive. A post-pandemic oversupply of hardware components such as memory and storage led to manufacturers downscaling and phasing out older products. These changes gradually lifted component prices again. But rather than those costs rising at a steady curve, they are increasing aggressively.

The general price of memory chips has almost tripled between the start and end of 2025. It's not the only component class under pressure. By December, market watchers noted that storage prices were also rising sharply, particularly for solid-state drives, and that NAND flash memory prices had increased between 60% and 200% since 2024. By March 2026, processor chip prices had also started going up. These shifts are more than a hiccup. They are causing significant knock-on effects. Western Digital has said that all of its 2026 stock is already booked. Gartner predicted in February that PC and smartphone shipments will drop by between 8% and 10%. IaaS host Hetzner announced it will hike hosting prices by as much as 50% because of rising hardware costs. Locally, MTN raised the issue during an investor call, saying that rising hardware component costs will affect infrastructure strategies.