Later this year, Dell anticipates a 20% increase in memory and SSD prices

Dell plans to raise costs in response to its projection that DRAM and solid state drives (SSDs) will increase in price by 15 to 20 percent in the second half of 2024. DRAM and SSD prices will soar as a result of that shift, he projected. CEO and vice-chair Jeff Clarke revealed that Dell has "begun to re-price things" and will manage margins as prices change.

The move was announced in the company’s Q1 2025 earnings by Jeff Clarke, vice-chair and Chief Operating Officer, Dell Technologies. Clarke cited these costs, as well as "the lack of capital expenditure, low market utilization, not a lot of wafer starts," and the need for memory-intensive artificial-intelligence capable servers as the chief reasons.

Dell has already repriced products across its server business, regardless of whether they use AI or not. Providing an update on this in the call, Clarke said that the manufacturing time for Nvidia’s B200 graphical processor units (GPUs) was the chief cause of its current $3.8 million server backlog.

Clarke mentioned that Windows 10 reaching end-of-life (EOL) and the advent of AI-equipped PCs are making Dell "bullish" about its upcoming PC refreshes and the "longer-term impact of AI on the PC market.

Dell’s growth predictions suggest that it knows which way the wind is blowing and why it has decided that now is the time to hike DRAM and SSD prices. Its Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) revenue is predicted to see a 20% boost, while its Consumer Solutions Group (CSG) is expected to grow by only 11%, with all of its other businesses expected to decline.