The effects of the ongoing memory and storage chip shortage continue to be seen with SanDisk and are rumored to be causing NVIDIA grief as well. While only a small handful of industry execs are publicly speaking about the shortages, which are said to be caused by the increasing demands of AI usage, the facts are in plain sight as prices skyrocket. The latest price increases come from SanDisk, which, per a report from DigiTimes (via Tom’s Hardware), has raised its contract prices by 50%, triggering ripples across the storage manufacturing sector with other companies such as Innodick, Transcen, and Apacer Technology, all of whom have reportedly paused shipments and are now re-examining current market conditions. According to the report, all three aforementioned companies saw staggering net profits hitting between 70% to 334% YoY but are obviously now working to adjust to increased manufacturing costs.
Meanwhile, an unexpected rumor began circulating last week. This time around, it involves potential GDDR7 memory supply restraints and their effect on GPU manufacturer NVIDIA. If the following rumor is true, it presents an ironic twist of fate since NVIDIA is the world’s largest supplier of AI technology. It’s long been speculated and plausible that NVIDIA would reveal its RTX 50 refresh, aka SUPER, series of GPUs at or around CES 2026. However, the latest rumor suggests that the current chip shortage will delay the NVIDIA RTX 50 SUPERs, unofficially referred to as the 5070 SUPER, 5070 Ti SUPER, and 5080 SUPER, until Q3 2026. The basis of this rumor is that NVIDIA is reportedly using 3 GB GDDR7 modules for the RTX 50 SUPER GPUs, which are now in short supply. The was a post on social media suggesting the refresh lineup had been cancelled, but well-known information leaker MEGAsizeGPU countered this, stating it has not been cancelled and is merely delayed.
No cancellation yet, just delayed. Now planned to launch in 26Q3, previously set to launch in 26Q1. https://t.co/C3RmFv1uIq
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) November 7, 2025
Folks chomping at the bit to upgrade beyond the RTX 50 series have already been pushing for RTX 60 details, to which MEGAsizeGPU expressed doubt of a 2027 release and that NVIDIA is likely to hang onto the 50 series for a bit longer. Meanwhile, just as NVIDIA is potentially focusing its supply of 3 GB GDDR7 on other products such as the RTX 5090 laptop GPU and RTX PRO “Blackwell” series, a shortage of 2 GB GDDR7 modules could result in lower inventory for the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB GPU, as it shares the same amount of VRAM as other GPUs further up in the GeForce RTX 50 product stack and NVIDIA may choose allocate that VRAM towards higher profit revenue generating models.
5060 Ti 16G will be in short supply very soon. https://t.co/PA8yslFHKY
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) November 7, 2025
As if all these if/and or maybe’s were not enough, some folks are now beginning to speculate that current RTX prices, which have only just recently reached MSRP, and in some cases below, will experience renewed price hikes. It’s also been suggested that when the RTX 50 SUPER series does launch, it will be at a higher MSRP than its predecessors, and not lower as sometimes happens.