Phones might get pricier next year. Thank the AI boom

Smartphones may soon become more expensive due to rising memory prices. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Fancy cameras, giant screens and massive storage usually make smartphones more expensive. But next year, it’s a routine component that might be boosting prices: memory.

And it’s not just phones. Any device that uses memory, from phones to tablets and smartwatches, could get pricier.

Memory prices are rising for consumer products because major manufacturers are instead ramping up production for AI data centers as artificial intelligence companies boom.

“It’s pretty much brutal and crunched across the board,” said Yang Wang, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

The International Data Corporation , a global market research firm, reported earlier this week that the smar