Conspiracy theory or apt prediction? — The AI-fueled hardware shortage will kill local PCs, paving the way for subscription-based cloud computing

Although uninvited, AI has arrived. It knocked on the door with promises of a new, leisurely life where we're all rich and where disease has been eradicated. But once AI got inside, it revealed its true intentions.

It's a thirsty beast, for both water and power. It's at least partly to blame for the massive number of layoffs that occurred in 2025. It gives wrong answers, it hallucinates, and I think it just told someone to jump off a building. AI is not a great party guest.

As another unintended consequence of the age of AI, one of my favorite hobbies is being laid to rest, at least for the time being. I'm talking about PC building, of course, which is in the process of being destroyed by the ongoing DRAM and NAND shortage caused by the buildout of AI datacenters around the world.

DDR5 RAM prices have reached unprecedented heights, and storage isn't far behind. This is affecting all tech that uses storage and memory (which is most of it), but it's also causing unintended price spikes elsewhere. For example, AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D gaming CPU is now selling for more than a new Ryzen 7 9800X3D, solely because the older chip supports DDR4 RAM (which hasn't seen the same intense squeeze ... yet).

Laptops and pre-built PCs are also affected, and most of the major brands have signalled that they have already or will soon raise prices. Considering DDR5 RAM costs are approaching the price that you'd have paid for a great Windows laptop at the start of 2025, a lot of users are going to be left behind once the price hikes are fully realized.

The worst part? There's not really an end in sight. AI firms have bought up years' worth of DRAM and NAND from manufacturers, and those manufacturers are happy to sell to the highest bidders. That leaves only the scraps for the rest of us.

Time for a conspiracy theory — In 10 years, local PCs will no longer exist

I love entertaining conspiracy theories — at least those that aren't entirely out of the realm of reality — and I've lately seen some suggest that the skyrocketing price of tech is all part of a manufactured future where we no longer have PCs for local computing.

I'm not sure if I agree, and you should definitely consider it with a heavy dose of skepticism like me. Still, it's an interesting idea, and it goes something like this:

AI is causing extreme shortages of the fundamental hardware that goes into our laptops, tablets, PCs, phones, graphics cards, TVs, etc. We've only just begun this cycle, and it's expected to get a lot worse before it gets better (if it ever does).

We could ultimately arrive at a time when buying a PC is no longer an option for most people. We won't just stop computing when that happens, which will lead to a newfound rise of cloud computing, where your favorite OS is only accessible with a ... you guessed it ... paid subscription.

Cloud-based devices don't need as much performance hardware inside, keeping costs down for end consumers. Corporations will rope us in with low subscription prices for the cloud, and once we're all hooked, they'll start jacking up the cost.

Big corporations LOVE subscription models. Small monthly payments add up, and the consumer feels like they're getting a better deal when they don't have to drop a lump sum. I honestly don't know the exact number of subscriptions leeching my bank account every month. Why not add one more?

Beyond the economic aspect, a world relying entirely on cloud computing is a privacy and agency nightmare. This year, there were several high-profile internet outages that blacked out a large portion of the web for hours at a time. Try cloud computing without an internet connection.

And if you thought that Microsoft, for example, was already taking too much interest in what you do on your PC, just wait until everything — and I mean everything — is hosted on its cloud servers. Was that an audible gulp from the surveillance state canaries at the back of the room?

What happens if the AI bubble pops before this theory has time to come true?

Plenty of experts believe there's an AI bubble that's already inflated to the point that it's bound to pop. The countless billions of dollars being poured into the business need to be paid back at some point, and so far, there's not really a solid answer as to how that will be accomplished.

Should the AI bubble pop, tech firms will be left with expensive and powerful data centers sitting idle. Wouldn't they be perfect to host all the new cloud users who can't afford a real PC? Wouldn't that help pay back the massive debts accrued during the AI race?

But wait, wouldn't tech prices return to normal if AI's demand suddenly dried up? Not necessarily, and that's ignoring the likely economic depression that would ensue. Micron, one of the biggest memory and storage suppliers in the world, already pulled its consumer Crucial products to focus on supplying AI. It might not be the last.

How long would it take for markets to return to normal? Wouldn't it be easier to put those idle datacenters back to work, this time for good ol' computing — something people actually need? As with any good conspiracy theory, the deeper you dig, the more questions it raises.

I want to know your thoughts on what the future of computing will look like if the AI-fuelled hardware catastrophe doesn't stop. What's your best argument for or against this theory? Sound off in the comments section below!

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