ASUS has announced upcoming price adjustments for "certain product combinations," effective January 5th. This information originated from a company statement shared by Digitimes and VideoCardz.
Reasons for Price Adjustments
ASUS attributes these adjustments to rising costs, primarily citing increased "AI compute demand." The company's statement detailed several contributing factors:
- Continued strong global demand in the PC and IT infrastructure markets, driven by AI adoption.
- Ongoing structural volatility within the global supply chain, which is exerting upward pressure on costs for critical components.
- Specific components mentioned include memory (DRAM) and storage components (NAND and SSD).
- Underlying causes cited include shifts in capacity allocation by upstream suppliers, increased investment costs for advanced manufacturing processes, and structural supply gaps created by rising AI compute demand.
Broader Industry Impact
Industry analysis has frequently noted that demand for AI technologies has contributed to a significant increase in memory costs. This trend is projected to result in broader price increases across the technology sector and may lead to delays for future console releases.
Product Specificity and Statement Status
ASUS's public statement did not specify which particular products would be affected by these price adjustments. Consequently, devices such as the ROG Xbox Ally were not explicitly named in the original communication concerning these changes. ASUS later clarified to VideoCardz that the communication was an "internal business communication" not intended for public release. Despite this, the statement subsequently circulated across various media outlets and social media platforms.