I’m going to start out by saying that I’m slowly learning about computers. Not nearly as much as my best friend who guided me (ever so patiently) while I built my own PC tower last Christmas. This year? I upgraded it some more (gradually). I bought two 16 gigabyte sticks of RAM (Random Access Memory) for $80.00 USD. The price of it now? More than half of the rent for my apartment. So what happened?

Micron Exits the Consumer Market

Micron, a leader in memory and storage solutions for technology announced on Dec. 3, 2025, that they are exiting the consumer market and will cease production on the Crucial brand of RAM and storage, according to Micron’s press release.

The press release states,

“Micron will continue Crucial consumer product shipments through the consumer channel until the end of fiscal Q2 (February 2026). The company will work closely with partners and customers through this transition and will provide continued warranty service and support for Crucial products. Micron will continue to support the sale of Micron-branded enterprise products to commercial channel customers globally.”

To summarize, RAM sticks that are branded as Crucial are going to be discontinued and Micron will ship out what they have left through Feb. 2026. Of course, the RAM I have is all Crucial brand. Those two sticks I ordered for $80? Now they are $280. And yes, I did consider selling them to make a quick buck… truthfully, I still am.

What is RAM & Why Does it Matter?

To dive into the scope of this problem, we need to cover the basics. RAM is the computer's “short-term memory.” RAM helps your system run smoothly by working directly with your CPU (Computer Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), and helps multitasking without overheating your computer and its parts. To summarize, applications, games, browsers, etc., all use memory to render pages. Your RAM sticks act as the silos for the tasks you’re asking your computer to do for you.

As technology advances, so does our need for faster, reliable speeds. When looking at RAM, there will be a mention of DDR4 or DDR5. These are essentially “tiers” of speed for your computer. DDR4 is slowly getting phased out because of DDR5 being faster and more concurrent. However, due to the market for RAM being inflated, people are willing to buy DDR4 to save over $100.

Now that we covered what RAM is and the tiers of speed, we can get into how this impacts your world.

RAM Usage in Agriculture

With precision agriculture on the rise, the equipment has RAM in it. The equipment will need to communicate with other components to store info and execute commands. Think of RAM like an empty silo, and the more you tell the equipment to do for you while it is performing other tasks, grain starts to fill the silo. Once you hit the threshold, obviously you’re going to over fill it and run into issues. The same is true with RAM. If you’re telling your drone to survey for weeds while it is taking live video and transmitting it to your computer, phone or tablet, that’s requiring a lot of juice.

Since Micron is leaving the consumer market and is pulling its Crucial brand off of shelves (which were the cheaper options months ago), the price of RAM is terrifyingly high. And, because AI programs and applications utilize so much RAM, we have an even more severe deficit of RAM sticks.

Precision agriculture that senses, collects data, are IoT devices, drones, remote sensors, autonomous tractors/robots, etc., depend heavily on hardware. If that hardware is being scalped to 400% its usual value, your equipment costs are sure to follow. Not convinced? There's RAM in your phone, your microwave, your toaster... it's everywhere. With how advanced precision ag is, coupled with the rise of AI, there is a guarantee that equipment prices will follow suit.

This affects every electronic, including outdoor power equipment, lawnmowers and even handheld drills. It was the height of COVID-19 when there was a massive chip shortage, which took over a year to come back down to earth. With RAM skyrocketing plus Micron exiting, there's this Grand Canyon-sized gap in the market for supply and demand. 

Due to that increased need of RAM and the shortage we currently face, it's possible that precision ag products will be scarce, off the shelves and unavailable. Remember how in 2020 people were fighting over toilet paper? It's that, but with an increase to its value. As I mentioned previously, DDR4 RAM — albeit still operable and tolerable — has become an option people are resorting to. Companies who manufacture precision agriculture equipment may begin to use lower quality materials.

If farm-local hardware becomes unreasonably high, ag-tech companies could shift to remote/cloud data centers. This could increase latency, dependency on connectivity (which is often patchy in rural areas), and data transfer costs — possibly undermining one of the advantages of edge-based precision agriculture. AI Data Centers are popping up all around the country, which, may seem good at first glance, but a local Wisconsin community is outraged by them.

AI Sparks Controversy in Wisconsin

I was driving to Port Washington, Wis., with my girlfriend in early November when we passed by a street lined with people protesting. We, of course, did not know what for, so we asked some of the shop owners. There is an AI data center that was approved to be built in Port Washington. OpenAI and Oracle's $15 billion Lighthouse data center campus is meant to advance artificial intelligence while using the proximity of Lake Michigan to cool components.

In an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Claudia Levens reports,

“The tax incremental district has seen steadfast crowds of regional residents who repeatedly raise concerns about the project's potential impact on the environment, water use, energy prices and the purpose of advancing AI.”

You can read the article for more information and/or watch this 2-minute YouTube video from WISN12 News giving what my manager would deem “the TLDR.”