Remember the GPU shortage during the crypto boom and pandemic? When graphics cards were selling for triple MSRP and gamers were fighting scalper bots just to build a mid-tier PC?

Yeah, that's coming back. Except this time, it's going to be worse.

AI data centers are projected to consume 70 percent of all memory chips manufactured in 2026. Not GPUs - memory chips. RAM, VRAM, GDDR, all of it. And when data centers are hoovering up that much supply, the shortages don't stay contained to one component category. They spread.

Here's how it cascades: AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are in an arms race to build bigger, faster AI infrastructure. That means buying up every high-bandwidth memory chip manufacturers can produce. When those chips become scarce, prices spike. And when prices spike for memory, it affects everything that uses memory - which includes gaming GPUs, consoles, laptops, and basically every piece of consumer electronics.

We're already seeing it. NVIDIA's latest GPUs are obscenely expensive, and it's not just because of the cutting-edge tech. It's because the memory chips inside them are in massive demand from AI data centers willing to pay way more than gamers ever could.

Gamers are getting priced out.

And it's not just high-end cards. The entire supply chain is affected. When memory is expensive, manufacturers prioritize their most profitable customers - which isn't the gaming market. It's enterprise. It's cloud providers. It's AI researchers with blank checks from venture capital.

The crypto boom at least had boom-and-bust cycles. Miners would panic sell when crypto crashed, flooding the used market with cards. AI infrastructure doesn't crash. Those data centers aren't going anywhere. This demand is permanent and growing.

Console gamers aren't safe either. The PS5 Pro and next-gen consoles all rely on the same memory supply chain. If chip shortages get severe, you could see console prices increase or, worse, availability become erratic again. Remember trying to buy a PS5 in 2021? That nightmare could return.

Some might say "just buy used" or "wait for prices to drop." Cool. Wait how long? Because if 70 percent of chips are going to data centers in 2026, and that percentage keeps climbing, we're not talking about a temporary shortage. We're talking about a fundamental market shift where gamers are a secondary concern for hardware manufacturers.

The cruel irony? A lot of this AI boom is being driven by tech that gamers pioneered. GPU computing, parallel processing, high-bandwidth memory - all of it was developed for gaming and graphics. Now that infrastructure is being redirected away from the people who built the market for it.

What can you do about it? Honestly, not much. Buy hardware when you can at reasonable prices, because waiting for deals might mean waiting forever. Support campaigns for better supply chain transparency. And maybe, just maybe, the industry will realize that alienating your core consumer base is a bad long-term strategy.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Verdict: Would I speedrun building a gaming PC right now? Absolutely. Before the prices get even worse.