Memory prices surge 500%, making business very difficult: Zoho founder

Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has said soaring computer memory prices and AI token costs are making business very difficult. Responding to a Tom's Hardware report, he said companies have held back from raising prices, but that is becoming hard. The report said memory prices have jumped as much as 500% in the past 12 months, with some DDR5 RAM kits now costing nearly 10 times their lowest recorded prices.

In a post on X, Vembu wrote: "Memory prices, along with AI token prices have made business very difficult. We have held back from raising prices but it is becoming hard." He added that the era of assuming memory is 'free' has ended. "We need highly memory efficient languages and smarter compilers, even for AI to use. Safety of code and productivity in writing code cannot come at the expense of memory bloat," he said.

According to Tom's Hardware historical data cited by Times Now, a 64GB DDR5-5600 kit that averaged around $191 in August 2025 was priced at about $1,118 in August 2026. A 128GB DDR5-6400 kit was recently listed at $3,399, compared with a lowest tracked price of $329. The increase is not limited to DDR5, DDR4 prices have also risen 120% to 177% year-on-year.