TUCSON, Ariz. — As students head back to school across southern Arizona, the cost of technology like laptops, tablets and phones continues to climb — and an AI expert says relief is not on the way.
Matt Rosen, founder and CEO of Allata Tech, a technology consulting firm, says a global memory shortage is at the root of rising prices.
"Yea there's like a global memory shortage," Rosen said.
The shortage is expected to worsen in the coming years.
"They think 2027 is going to be the worst memory shortage on record," Rosen said.
Rosen points to AI data centers as a key driver of the problem — a topic generating controversy across the country.
"AI data centers are really eating up the world's memory supply," Rosen said.
AI servers require massive amounts of memory, making it harder for companies to keep consumer prices low.
"There's going to continue to be a high demand but what that does downstream, is that affects the prices of your Dell laptops, your MacBooks, your Ipads," Rosen said.
Parents are already spending an average of $800 to $1,000 per child on back-to-school supplies, with some spending several thousand dollars outfitting their kids with phones, laptops and smartwatches.
Rosen recommends looking at cheaper alternatives or holding onto older devices to avoid the sticker shock.
"For my kids, early days I just got them Chromebook's I mean half the time is web based anyways and Chromebooks are still pretty inexpensive," Rosen said.
The average Chromebook runs between \200and200and500. A look at some popular tech stores shows sales currently available, making now a good time to buy if you have not yet purchased one.
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