You may have heard the term “ shrinkflation ” used for a growing number of grocery products, like how your cereal costs more every year even though there is less Captain Crunch in the box. Similarly, in 2026, everything from phones to PC components to boutique gaming products is not only more expensive, they’re also getting worse. The top major semiconductor companies who create the vast majority of memory components include the likes of SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. All three have adjusted their businesses for the sake of making the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) necessary for constructing AI datacenters—those same big tech-backed construction projects have residents up in arms in small towns across the U.S. You can see the ravages of shrinkflation play out with major smartphone brands as large as Google. The semi-reliable Telegram leaker Mystic Leaks (via PhoneArena ) posted a range of supposed specs for the upcoming Pixel 11 lineup.…