Kotaku reports that Asus has notified its partners of strategic price adjustments for certain products, effective January 5, ahead of CES 2026. The electronics maker, whose gaming portfolio includes the $1,000 ROG Xbox Ally X, did not specify which items would rise in price or by how much. The company attributed the moves to the ongoing AI arms race and shifts in upstream capacity. In a December 30 letter translated by Videocardz, Asus executive Liao Yi-Xiang cited higher investment costs for advanced manufacturing processes and structural supply gaps created by rising AI compute demand, with DRAM, NAND, and SSD shortages singled out as part of the issue.
Industry watchers view the move as the first hard signal that 2026 will bring continued upward pressure on gaming prices across the spectrum. The warning arrives just days before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Asus and other hardware makers are expected to unveil updates and new products. The broader market narrative centers on AI-driven demand for compute resources, a dynamic that could tighten supply and push prices higher for both peripherals and core components alike. This development has prominent implications for a market already talking about affordability and access as new generations of hardware approach launch windows.
Industry chatter circulating through late 2025 suggests RAM shortages and other bottlenecks could spill over into pricing for GPUs and related components. Insider Gaming referenced sources within the hardware supply chain who indicated that RAM production ramp-ups and other capacity constraints might slow or shift the timing of next-gen releases. In a separate report, South Korea’s Newsis claimed Nvidia and AMD were already considering significant GPU price increases in 2026, with some talk centering around a flagship card like an RTX 5090 potentially rising from roughly $2,000 to as much as $5,000 by year’s end. While these figures are speculative, they underscore a broader concern that pricing dynamics could ripple through both PC builds and upcoming console ecosystems.
Taken together, the reporting paints a picture of a market that remains highly responsive to AI compute demand. The AI arms race has already reshaped the strategic priorities of companies like Microsoft and Nvidia, to the point where their non-AI business lines appear increasingly marginal relative to AI-driven revenue. If the AI market maintains its current trajectory, observers caution that price adjustments may persist through 2026, complicating the cost landscape for enthusiasts who are already navigating memory, storage, and graphics upgrades.
ASUS’s warning serves as a market signal heading into CES. While the company’s communication stops short of detailing exact prices or product tiers, the emphasis on upstream supply constraints and the costs associated with expanding AI-enabled manufacturing makes clear that any stabilization in pricing will depend on broader supply improvements and capacity scaling. For gamers, the outcome is a more expensive baseline for new hardware across GPUs, memory, and peripherals as the year unfolds, even as trade shows promise fresh options and increased performance from next-generation devices.