According to TechRadar’s September 21 reporting, which traces the remarks through VideoCardz to Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, Chen described DDR4 and DDR5 supply as “quite large” and called a shortage lasting until 2030 “impossible.” Tom’s Hardware, citing DigiTimes, also reports that Chen expects improving availability and eventual price relief, while putting further PC price increases of 5% to 20% toward the end of 2026. These accounts describe an executive’s forecast, rather than independently measured proof that the shortage is ending.
What Chen is disputing
Chen’s argument concerns the duration and breadth of the shortage. TechRadar reports that he sees relatively little shortage of mainstream DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with additional chip production—particularly in China—supporting his expectation that constraints will ease.
That does not mean every component is readily available. According to Tom’s Hardware, Chen said tighter supply remains concentrated in particular high-end memory parts and specific processors, rather than affecting all memory and CPUs equally. The publication also reports his expectation that lower-cost Chinese memory suppliers will disrupt the market.
The useful distinction is between component availability and the price buyers pay. Chen can believe manufacturers are becoming better able to obtain memory while still expecting computers to become more expensive. His own pricing forecast makes clear that “supply is improving” should not be read as “retail RAM is now cheap.”
There is also a geographic limit to the optimistic interpretation. TechRadar cautions that Chen’s comments appear particularly oriented toward the Chinese market. They do not establish that equivalent supply conditions or price reductions will reach every country at the same time.
The price outlook still points upward first
The reports describe broadly similar expectations, although they do not give an identical turning point:
| Period | Reported outlook |
|---|---|
| Fourth quarter of 2026 | Further PC price increases of roughly 5% to 20%. |
| First half of 2027 | Tom’s Hardware reports that Chen expects PC prices to plateau. |
| Around mid-2027 or later | TechRadar describes declines beginning around midyear; Tom’s Hardware places the reversal in the second half of 2027. |
The detailed plateau-and-decline sequence comes from Tom’s Hardware’s account of Chen’s remarks. It is a forecast, not an Acer price-cut announcement or a commitment covering particular models.
The 5%–20% range concerns PC pricing in the reporting, not a verified increase for every RAM kit. It also does not establish how much a particular laptop, desktop or business purchasing contract will change.
Nor would better memory supply automatically remove every other source of cost pressure. Tom’s Hardware reports that Chen also discussed price increases affecting SSDs, printed circuit boards and fiberglass cloth used in motherboards. That helps explain why an easing of one component constraint need not immediately produce a matching reduction in finished-PC prices.
What buyers can reasonably take from this
For a purchase needed in late 2026, Chen’s comments provide no evidence-based reason to assume that waiting a few weeks will secure a lower price. His near-term outlook remains one of increases.
For a discretionary upgrade that can wait until the second half of 2027, his forecast offers a possible window for improvement. Treat that as a planning scenario, however, rather than a guaranteed saving: neither the size of the eventual decline nor its application to specific configurations is established.
For IT budgeting, the practical implication is to separate the price of a currently quoted system from assumptions about next year’s market. Applying the reported 5%–20% range mechanically to every fleet purchase would turn a broad forecast into a precision it does not have.
Chen’s comments support a narrower conclusion than “the RAM crisis is overblown”: prolonged shortages through 2030 are contested, and an important PC manufacturer expects conditions to improve sooner. Even in that more optimistic outlook, buyers still face months of elevated or rising PC prices before the predicted relief.