- February 17, 2026
IT Procurement Update – February 2026
Supply Urgency
Exponential AI demand is challenging supply, rivaling Pandemic levels. WBM has been monitoring this situation closely, and given the industry-wide increases in component costs for memory and storage, we expect to see significant price increases from all major manufacturers throughout 2026.
Current Pricing Validity
Lenovo – Pricing is valid for 45 days on end‑user devices and 14–30 days on infrastructure, and Lenovo is subject to cancel the order at any time. Based on current market conditions, Lenovo expects that pricing will be updated in early March 2026 for certain products and configurations across the Commercial IDG portfolio. Due to significant and unexpected increases in component and memory costs, Lenovo can no longer fulfill the order(s) at the originally quoted pricing. This circumstance meets the material‑cost‑change condition contemplated under our agreements, which permits Lenovo to adjust prices after order confirmation. As a planning guideline, orders received by Lenovo later than February 25, 2026, are more likely to align with current pricing assumptions, subject to product availability and shipment timing. NOTE: Orders received before February 28, 2026, but not shipped by March 31, 2026, will need to be repriced. Backorders that have not shipped due to factory delays will not be honoured and will have to be requoted. Lenovo will place any orders that have not shipped by March 31st on hold, and customers will have the opportunity to accept the new pricing or cancel the order. This includes custom (CTO) orders, which are usually non‑cancelable.
HP – Current bids are valid for 30 days only. HP implemented a price increase on February 1 and will be raising pricing again, effective March 1, by an additional 10–20% across all hardware product lines. We strongly recommend securing approvals and placing orders as soon as possible to avoid the upcoming increase. Once March 1 hits, new pricing will apply with no exceptions.
Zebra – “Given current market dynamics, we anticipate the potential for minor supply risk in certain memory configurations as demand continues to evolve across the industry. This current supply and demand environment is impacting many technology providers, and our team is proactively working with our suppliers to stay ahead of potential constraints.”
— Tamera Frose, Chief Supply Chain Officer
Microsoft – Microsoft has announced changes to Surface promotions due to ongoing increases in memory and component costs, driven by strong demand across the technology market. As a result, several promotional offers on select Surface devices will be ending earlier than planned, with most changes taking effect between February 28 and March 1, 2026.
At this time, Surface list prices have not changed. Microsoft has indicated that further pricing updates are expected later this quarter as component cost pressures continue. Any future adjustments are anticipated to take effect as early as April 2026. Organizations planning near‑term Surface purchases are encouraged to review timelines and finalize decisions promptly to avoid potential pricing impacts related to these upcoming changes. There is currently a supply issue with the Intel chip CU5/32. Any new orders received will not be shipped until mid‑April to mid‑May. We are awaiting information from Intel on when the supply will improve. This equates to a 14+ week lead time.
Dell – 14 days on both core client and infrastructure.
Cisco – Compute order cancellations: Given the market volatility around supply, cost, and pricing of critical components, Cisco has the right to cancel Compute orders up to 45 days before shipment. This is consistent with the cancellation rights that Cisco provides to our partners today. Compute price adjustments: Cisco reserves the right to adjust pricing on Compute orders in the event of significant increases in component costs, manufacturing costs, tariffs, exchange rate fluctuations, or other external factors beyond Cisco’s control that may occur between the order date and the shipment date.
Supply Chain Shortage News
Inside RAMaggedon: Why Laptop Prices Will Continue to Surge in 2026
RAM Shortage and Higher Laptop Prices Not Expected to End This Year (or Next)
Memory Price Impacts
The current market situation is such that 64GB of DDR5 memory can now cost more than a PS5. This price increase is attributed to the global memory chip shortage and the surge in demand for AI-related technology. The prices for DDR5 RAM have skyrocketed, with a 64GB kit of DDR5-6000 now costing $599, which is more expensive than a PS5. This trend is expected to continue into 2026, impacting the cost of building and upgrading PC systems. Global memory chip shortage has caused the price of RAM and other components to increase by 20-50%, with costs fluctuating massively on a daily basis.
Server memory prices could double by 2026 as AI demand strains supply.
DRAM prices have already risen approximately 50% year to date and are expected to climb another 30% in Q4 2025, followed by an additional 20% in early 2026, Counterpoint Research said in its report. The firm projected that DDR5 64GB RDIMM modules, widely used in enterprise data centers, could cost twice as much by the end of 2026 as they did in early 2025. [Network World]
At the same time, the firm also expected DRAM output to grow by more than 20% in 2026 as manufacturers ramp production but warned this may not be sufficient to offset AI-driven demand. Enterprise buyers can already feel the impact. Procurement teams are facing price increases for servers, PCs, and smartphones.
The bigger risk on the horizon is with advanced memory, as Nvidia’s recent pivot to LPDDR means they’re a customer on the scale of a major smartphone maker — a seismic shift for the supply chain which can’t easily absorb this scale of demand,” MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research, said in the report. [CounterPoint Research]
Nvidia reportedly raises GPU prices by 10-15% as manufacturing costs surge.
A new report claims that Nvidia has recently raised the official prices of nearly all of its products to combat the impact of tariffs and surging manufacturing costs on its business, with gaming graphics cards receiving a 5 to 10% hike while AI GPUs see up to a 15% increase. [Tom’s Hardware]
AMD and Nvidia could axe budget gaming GPUs due to rising memory prices.
Memory prices have seen an astronomical increase over the past weeks due to strong AI-driven demand. Naturally, it was expected that the rising RAM prices would also impact gaming GPUs, resulting in price adjustments. However, it now appears that both AMD and Nvidia are considering taking drastic measures to lessen the impact of the GDDR VRAM price gain. [NotebookCheck]
AI is eating all the DRAM. DDR5 prices just doubled. GPUs could be next.
To AI buildouts, DRAM supply and future manufacturing capacity have already been bought out. SK Hynix, for example, a major DRAM manufacturer, said recently that “DRAM, NAND, as well as HBM capacity for next year has been sold out.“ [TechSpot]
Our Recommendation
If you have known technology requirements upcoming, WBM is now strongly recommending that you consider strategies to move these purchases forward to ensure pricing and availability. WBM is encouraging customers to buy the RAM and storage they need to support their systems for the lifetime of that system. Some industry forecasters are suggesting recovery is expected to take up to 3+ years (end of 2029).
Our Procurement Services Team has real-time inventory insights from all Tier 1 manufacturers and distributors in Canada, and we can work with you to provide managed inventory services and/or deferred leasing payment arrangements as required to facilitate any risk mitigation strategies you wish to pursue.
For assistance, please contact your WBM Account Manager or reach out directly to our Procurement Services team at 888-275-4926 or sales@wbm.ca. You can also check real-time stock availability via the WBM Direct procurement portal at wbmdirect.ca.
WBM is a local Western Canadian IT channel partner working to mitigate supply risks for our customer community. For any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Ashley Schell
Director, Strategic Procurement
