Nvidia Customers Notified About AI-Related Price Hikes Above 15%

Nvidia's biggest customers have been told servers built around its AI chips will cost over 15% more in many cases, as memory chip costs soar.

Nvidia's biggest customers have been told that servers built around its artificial-intelligence chips are getting more expensive — in many cases by more than 15% — as the memory chips that power those systems hit a supply crunch, Fortune reports.

The increases take effect on systems shipped early next year and will hit configurations built on the company's flagship Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips, with the exact amount depending on the chip generation and memory configuration, according to people familiar with the matter. Contract manufacturers that assemble servers for large data-center operators such as Microsoft, Alphabet's Google, and Oracle have begun notifying their customers of the coming hikes.

The squeeze stems from memory. High-bandwidth DRAM from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — the trio that controls nearly all the world's supply — has become the scarce input in AI servers, and those suppliers now hold unusual leverage. Even Nvidia, with a 75% gross margin, is passing costs through rather than absorbing them, CNBC notes. Nvidia reports fiscal second-quarter earnings next week, an update that has become a bellwether for the broader AI buildout.