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The AI Chip Crunch Heads to CES 2027, and Oregon Is Part of the Story

Writer: Phil Harpster
Phil Harpster
12 minutes ago
4 min read

Large white semiconductor production buildings at Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Production buildings at Intel’s Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, seen from Shute Road in 2018.

If your laptop or phone is getting old, the coming year may be a tricky time to replace it. The artificial-intelligence boom is soaking up the world’s supply of memory chips, and the organizers of CES 2027, the giant consumer technology show in Las Vegas Jan. 6–9, are putting the “memory crunch” on the agenda.

The Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES, plans a conference titled “The New Memory Economy” on Jan. 5, the day before the show opens, Seoul Economic Daily reported Oct. 2. A Jan. 7 session, “Gaming Through the Memory Crunch,” will look at how shortages are affecting game development schedules and hardware supply. Organizers said AI demand is shifting memory production away from consumer chips toward the high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems.

Why gadgets are getting pricier

In a Sept. 30 forecast, market research firm TrendForce projected that contract prices for conventional DRAM, the working memory in computers and phones, will rise 10% to 15% in the fourth quarter compared with the third. NAND flash, the storage inside solid-state drives and phones, is expected to climb 15% to 20%. Chip suppliers are still prioritizing capacity for high-performance server products, which keeps the overall market undersupplied, the firm said.

Shoppers are feeling it. TrendForce said notebook inventories increasingly reflect higher component costs this quarter, weighing on sales, and PC memory supply could shrink in 2027 as more capacity shifts to servers. PC brands are also trimming SSD capacity in mainstream models to cut costs. Rising memory costs are weighing on smartphone production, and lower-margin products such as TVs, set-top boxes and wearables have even less room to absorb higher prices.

The squeeze comes from how AI memory is made. TrendForce projects that high-bandwidth memory’s share of total DRAM wafer input will rise from about 22% at the end of this year to 30% by the end of 2027, according to Seoul Economic Daily. Because high-bandwidth memory uses more wafers than ordinary DRAM, a bigger share leaves less capacity for the chips that go into laptops and phones.

The Oregon connection

The AI hardware race also runs through Washington County. On Oct. 6, Applied Materials announced it is working with Intel to speed development of next-generation transistors, interconnects and advanced packaging for AI chips, linking Applied’s new EPIC Center in Silicon Valley with Intel’s R&D campus in Hillsboro, according to the companies’ announcement. The work includes packaging for Intel’s Foveros 3D chip-stacking technology, aimed at higher interconnect density, better power delivery and improved thermal performance.

“Applied Materials is an important partner, and we look forward to expanding our work together at the EPIC Center to help accelerate the path from the lab to high-volume manufacturing in the United States,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in the announcement. No specific process node, product launch or production timetable was disclosed, Converge Digest noted.

The supplier network around Intel is busy, too. The Daily Journal of Commerce reported Oct. 1 that Trellis West, a 214,152-square-foot advanced manufacturing campus in Hillsboro less than three miles from Intel’s Ronler Acres and Hawthorn Farm campuses, sold for $30.9 million. The four-building complex is 90% leased and anchored by Applied Materials and KLA, with nearly all tenants in the semiconductor business.

Next week the state takes its pitch on the road. Team Oregon, a coalition convened by Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, will host an Oregon Pavilion at SEMICON West, the industry’s big trade show, Oct. 13–15 in San Francisco.

What it means for Salem-area shoppers

Read the spec sheet, not just the price tag. With PC brands already trimming storage in mainstream models, compare RAM and SSD sizes model to model.

Consider upgrading instead of replacing. Many laptops and desktops have a replaceable M.2 drive (check your manufacturer’s manual, since some are soldered down). A drive such as the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe SSD can breathe new life into an older machine, and a precision screwdriver set like the iFixit Mako Driver Kit handles the tiny screws. If you just need room for photos and files, an external drive such as the Samsung T7 Portable SSD plugs into USB without opening anything up.

Gamers have their own storage math. The Nintendo Switch 2 stores downloaded games only on microSD Express cards, not standard microSD cards, according to Nintendo Support. Cards such as the SanDisk 256GB microSD Express Card are built for it.

What to watch at CES

The show’s opening day, Jan. 6, features keynotes from Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa and Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, according to CES press releases. On Oct. 7, CTA announced that Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang will take the stage for “Tech World @ CES” at Sphere in Las Vegas at 5 p.m. PT that evening, focused on what Lenovo calls hybrid AI.

Willamette News plans to report from CES in January. Until then, this weekly column will track what’s coming and what it means for the Willamette Valley.

Gear for the story

Product details come from Amazon listings as of Oct. 7, 2026. Prices and availability change, so check the listing before you buy.

As an Amazon Associate, Willamette News earns from qualifying purchases.

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