You’ve probably noticed phones haven’t been getting cheaper. The RAM crisis grinding away at the industry for months isn’t letting up. According to a new TrendForce projection , mobile DRAM prices could jump between 93% and 98% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2026. That’s on top of a 58–63% increase that LPDDR5X already saw in Q1. To put that in dollar terms: LPDDR5 contract prices were hovering around $10 per gigabyte earlier this year, per SemiAnalysis. If TrendForce’s numbers hold, manufacturers could be paying close to $20 per gigabyte by the end of Q2. Some manufacturers are reportedly already signing long-term supply agreements at up to $21/GB. Memory prices are already roughly three times what they were at the start of 2025. Analysts don’t expect meaningful relief until at least late 2027. Why AI Is Making Your Phone More Expensive The root of the mobile DRAM prices problem sits with AI data centers. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron control the vast majority of global DRAM production.…