Memory Price Index · Agentic Sciences
Week of Apr 14, 2026

DRAM, HBM & NAND price benchmark — tracking the AI memory supercycle.

A weekly, source-verifiable index of memory prices. Designed as reference data for perpetual-futures style contracts and research, with every datapoint tagged by source and recency.

As of 2026-04-14 Spot source TrendForce Contract source TrendForce / Industry Historical anchor The Memory Guy
01 · Spot market

Chip-level spot prices, week of Apr 14 2026

Average transacted prices on the open DRAM/NAND spot market. Small volumes, but price discovery leads contract by weeks.

DDR4 1Gx8 3200MT/s VERIFIED
$33.40/ chip
▼ 0.48%w/w
TrendForce spot, Apr 14 · prior week $33.56
DDR5 16Gb VERIFIED
~$7/ chip
▲ all-time high
Mainstream grade · surpassing 2017-18 peaks
DDR4 16Gb eTT VERIFIED
~$10/ chip
▲ +2,200% YoY
Legacy phase-out + supply compression
NAND 512Gb TLC wafer VERIFIED
$21.00/ wafer
▼ 3.13%w/w
TrendForce spot, week of Apr 15
Spot vs. retail — the gap tells the story
Chip spot prices are softening as weak end-demand meets high headline prices; contract prices are still climbing. The divergence is the signal.
DDR4 1Gx8 chip ($) NAND 512Gb TLC ($)
02 · Retail modules

Consumer DDR5 / DDR4 kits, April 2026

Lowest mainstream retail prices tracked by Tom's Hardware. Compared against each kit's all-time low to visualize the supercycle.

Kit Capacity Speed Apr 2026 All-time low Premium
Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR516 GB5200 CL40$219$65+237%
TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR516 GB6000 CL38$239$197+21%
Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR532 GB6000$439$87+405%
Patriot Viper Venom DDR564 GB6000 CL32$699$139+403%
Corsair Vengeance DDR5128 GB6400 CL42$1,690$329+414%
TeamGroup T-Create DDR416 GB3600 CL18$132$28+371%
Silicon Power Gaming DDR432 GB3200$199$49+306%
Crucial Pro DDR464 GB3200$449$85+428%

Source: Tom's Hardware RAM Price Index, retrieved 2026-04-18.

03 · Contract market

Q1 2026 contract hikes — Samsung & SK hynix

Hyperscaler DRAM contracts renegotiated with unprecedented QoQ increases. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Dell reported to be in the queue.

Q1 2026 contract QoQ change
Who's buying
  • Microsoft — Azure capacity buildout
  • Google — TPU v7 (HBM3E) shipping 2026
  • Amazon — Trainium (HBM3E) 2026 ramp
  • Apple — on-device LLM footprint
  • Dell, HPE, Supermicro — server OEM channel
Note: Contract prices are negotiated bilaterally and not publicly disclosed in absolute terms. Percentage changes above are reported by TrendForce and industry press (Jan 2026). Absolute levels are not inferable without vendor data.
04 · HBM · The bottleneck

HBM3E +20% for 2026 · HBM4 fully allocated

Suppliers reallocated ~3× wafer capacity to HBM. Every NVIDIA H200 needs 6 stacks of HBM3E; every B200 needs 8. Micron has pre-sold its entire 2026 HBM output.

HBM3E supply price VERIFIED
+20%
2026 vs 2025
Samsung & SK hynix, reported Dec 2025
HBM4 2026 supply VERIFIED
Sold out
Micron full-year booked
Pricing + volume locked calendar 2026
HBM3E per H200 GPU VERIFIED
6stacks
China H200 orders ~$3B since Dec 2025
NVIDIA → Samsung HBM4 ESTIMATE
~2×
HBM3E price paid
Press reports, NotebookCheck · unconfirmed absolute
05 · Long arc · 10-year index

DRAM $/GB — quarterly 2016→2023, monthly 2024→2026

60 data points across a full decade. Large blue dots are verified prints (Memory Guy / TrendForce press / sourced contract figures). The rest are reconstructed from cycle shape and public QoQ reporting.

DRAM mainstream $ / GB · 10-year index
Verified prints Estimated / interpolated Hover any point for source & date
2017–2018

Previous peak

Mobile + server upgrade cycle pushed mainstream DRAM to ~$8/GB. Cycle broke in 2019 as supply caught up.

2020–2021

COVID digital buildout

PC / datacenter demand spike; prices recovered from 2019 trough to a secondary peak before easing in 2022.

2023 Q3

Cycle trough

Inventory correction bottom. TrendForce called the turn; suppliers began HBM capacity reallocation.

2025 Q4

Supercycle breakout

DRAM spot nearly tripled YoY (+187% by Sep 9). 32 GB DDR5 kit: $100–200 (Oct 2025) → $350+.

2026 Q1

Contracts catch up

Server DRAM contracts +60–70% QoQ. Conventional DRAM +55–60%. HBM3E +20% for full year.

2026 Q2

Current · spot softens

Retail pullback as end-demand flinches at headline prices. Contracts still climb. Divergence to watch.

06 · Use case · Compute futures

Why memory needs a benchmark: AX × Ornn perpetual futures

On Jan 21 2026, Architect Financial Technologies (Brett Harrison, ex-FTX US) announced — in partnership with compute index provider Ornn Data — the first exchange-traded perpetual futures on GPU and DRAM rental prices. This index exists to serve exactly that reference need.

Pending regulatory approval · AX perpetual futures

Compute is becoming a financial asset class. Memory volatility is the risk nobody could hedge — until now.

Hyperscalers, GPU clouds, and AI labs absorb 50-70% QoQ hikes in DRAM contracts with no liquid hedge. A perpetual futures contract on a transparent index turns DRAM from a balance-sheet surprise into something you can price, hedge, and borrow against.

Exchange
AX (Architect)
Index provider
Ornn Data LLC
Underlying
GPU rental + DRAM daily
Structure
Perpetual, margined
Collateral
USD / USD stablecoins
Target users
Institutions, GPU clouds, lenders
Why hedge matters — 5Y realized volatility
Who's exposed to DRAM price risk
  • GPU clouds — HBM + DRAM is 30–45% of BOM on AI servers
  • AI labs — training run budgets move with memory contracts
  • OEMs — Dell / HPE / Supermicro margin sensitive to spot/contract gap
  • Hardware financiers — residual-value risk on leased GPU racks
  • Memory producers — Samsung / SK hynix / Micron revenue smoothing
Benchmark role: This index is designed as auditable reference data. The 10-year timeseries above with explicit verified/estimated tagging is exactly what a cash-settled perpetual needs — a backtestable, methodology-transparent underlying. AX/Ornn run their own index; we publish this one openly so researchers and risk teams can cross-check.
07 · Methodology & sources

How we compile this index

Every datapoint is tagged VERIFIED if it comes from a public print with a known date, or ESTIMATE if interpolated or derived from reporting without an absolute figure.

TrendForce DRAMeXchange
Weekly spot chip prices (DDR4, DDR5, NAND wafers). Primary source for spot.
trendforce.com/price
TrendForce Press
Contract QoQ forecasts, server DRAM hike reporting, HBM3E pricing intel.
trendforce.com/news
Tom's Hardware RAM Index
Retail module prices across DDR4/DDR5 kits, daily lowest-price tracking.
tomshardware.com
The Memory Guy (Jim Handy)
Historical $/GB anchor points 2012, 2016, 2019. InSpectrum-sourced.
thememoryguy.com
Digitimes · Seeking Alpha
HBM3E 20% hike confirmation (Dec 2025), HBM4 NVIDIA supply reports.
digitimes.com
Sourceability · QoQ ledger
Cross-reference for contract QoQ memory increases by quarter.
sourceability.com
IntuitionLabs · 2025 shortage
Late-2025 DDR5 16Gb contract prints ($6.84 → $27.20) and inventory weeks-of-supply figures.
intuitionlabs.ai
Architect / Ornn announcement
Jan 21 2026 press release — compute perpetual futures launch, AX × Ornn Data.
prnewswire.com
Data honesty: Anything between verified anchor points is interpolated. HBM absolute prices are not publicly disclosed — only percentage changes from bilateral contracts are reported. Treat contract figures as directional, not tradeable. This site is research reference, not investment advice.