RAM prices reportedly plunged sharply, falling about 100 yuan in one day

Sudden plunge hits retail channels

It has been reported that DRAM module prices in China's retail and wholesale channels fell sharply last week, with some popular 16GB sticks dropping as much as 100 yuan in a single day. Chinese tech site IT Home (IT之家) cited research from Chengshi Interactive (橙柿互动) and comments from a long‑time storage wholesaler at Bainaohui (百脑汇) who told reporters that prices “collapsed” starting last Saturday and continued into the following days. Retailers described year‑on‑year sales declines of roughly 60% compared with the period before November, which they attribute to high prices curbing demand.

Supply, hoarding and AI software change the equation

Market participants say the rout is driven by a mix of shifting supply‑and‑demand dynamics and a wave of selling by speculators who hoarded inventory during last year’s price surge. It has been reported that many non‑core buyers piled into memory buying when prices spiked, and that the sudden retreat triggered a large round of liquidations that the current market is struggling to absorb. Adding fuel to the sell‑off, Google (谷歌) recently published a research paper on a new compression method called “TurboQuant” that reportedly reduces the key‑value cache memory footprint of large language models by at least 60%. Financial Times coverage has linked that research to a sharp drop in US memory‑chip stocks this week, with reports that US manufacturers such as Micron — reportedly down about 15% since last Friday — saw hundreds of billions of dollars in market value evaporate.

What this means for China and the broader chip market

For Chinese consumers, a rapid fall in module prices could finally translate into lower PC and upgrade costs, but it also risks bankrupting small channel players sitting on expensive inventory. For the global memory industry, the episode highlights how software advances can quickly change hardware demand projections — and how fragile investor confidence remains after a long period of AI‑driven oversubscription. Geopolitics still matters: supply chains and capacity plans were already being reshaped by export controls and industrial policy, so a software‑driven demand shock could complicate investment choices in both the U.S. and China. Will the price drop be temporary bargaining or the start of a broader correction? Reportedly, the market remains unsure.