When someone asks me for gadget buying advice, I normally tell them to stick with their current device. In 2025, most new tech products aren't a worthwhile upgrade over even something that was released a few years ago - and with the price of everything going up, that new iPhone can wait. But things aren't normal right now.On December 3, The Wall Street Journal reported memory manufacturer Micron would wind down Crucial, its consumer business, to focus on components for the AI industry. The PC I'm writing this article on has an SSD and RAM from Crucial. Overnight, Micron decided to end a business it spent decades building, and from a certain perspective, I guess it makes sense. In recent months, OpenAI has signed more than $1.4 trillion worth of infrastructure deals, creating unprecedented demand for server-grade solid-state storage and RAM.To meet the moment, manufacturers have been allocating more of their production capacity and wafers to high-margin commercial customers. For consumers, the result has been skyrocketing RAM prices, with some DDR5 kits now costing as much as two or three times as much as they did a couple of months ago. Recent analysis from TrendForce shows the price of some consumer-grade SSDs increased between 20 and 60 percent in November for the same reason. Then there's LPDDR5X memory, which is used in both smartphones and NVIDIA's Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms. In 2026, it's expected to increase in price as well. The demand for AI infrastructure is such that all consumer electronics may cost more in the coming months.