Surging AI compute demand has triggered a severe global memory-chip supply
shortage, sharply tightening spot availability in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei.
Merchants said NVIDIA issued a new round of price-increase notices to authorized
GPU makers; factories have enacted warehouse lockdowns and paused bulk outbound
shipments, constricting supply across the distribution chain. Channel
distributors are hoarding remaining inventory, pushing spot prices higher. Price
moves: 1TB SSD 410 yuan in Sep last year -> 950 yuan now (+132%); 16GB DDR5 450
-> 1,850 (+311%); 32GB DDR5 900 -> 3,800 (+322%); RTX 5060 22 July 2,300 ->
~3,000 (+30%); RTX 5080 22 July 8,000 -> ~12,000 (+50%).
