The疯狂扩张 of the artificial intelligence industry is reshaping the entire hardware ecosystem. Recently, industry insiders revealed that due to the surge in demand for chips and memory in the AI sector, the prices of these core components have skyrocketed, putting unprecedented pressure on game console manufacturers — they may even delay the launch of the new generation consoles originally scheduled for 2027 to 2028.

The core issue is straightforward: the AI chip industry is siphoning off chip capacity in the market. The previous strategy where game hardware manufacturers relied on cost advantages of chips to lower prices and gain market share has hit a wall. Memory costs have surged, and console makers are caught in a dilemma — either accept extremely high production costs or pass the pressure onto consumers by releasing exorbitantly priced products.

This is not alarmist talk. According to several hardware suppliers, memory prices have increased several times in the short term. And since the demand for AI computing power has not yet peaked, this suggests that chip shortages could become a normal phenomenon in the coming years. Currently, each console manufacturer is internally debating whether to stick to the original plan of releasing new consoles or to hold back — after all, launching a prohibitively expensive console that the market cannot accept carries too much risk.

Console manufacturers are now pinning their hopes on chip manufacturers, expecting them to rapidly expand production and upgrade infrastructure during this period, bringing prices back to reasonable levels. But the reality could be more complex: even if capacity issues are resolved, the entire gaming hardware market may still be doomed to price hikes.

Some senior figures in the chip industry have even issued warnings, stating that the current memory supply crisis is the most severe in the past twenty years. Executives from major companies like Kingston have also publicly warned. This reflects a larger trend — the entire tech industry is undergoing a reshuffle, with high-compute-demand sectors like AI, cryptocurrency mining, and cloud computing competing for the same limited resources.

What does this mean for gamers? The new consoles might arrive later, and when they do, they could be more expensive. For the entire hardware ecosystem, this is a period of adjustment — those who can quickly adapt to these cost pressures will be able to maintain competitiveness in the next cycle.