OVHcloud raises RAM and NVMe prices due to AI pressure

OVHcloud has announced a major price review for some of its dedicated servers during the second half of 2026, with increases of up to 652% in certain DDR5 memory upgrades and jumps of up to 166% in some storage configurations. The European provider attributes the adjustment to the sharp rise in component costs driven by demand related to artificial intelligence, especially the shift of manufacturing capacity toward HBM memory used in AI accelerators.

The key points of OVHcloud’s price hike in 30 seconds

• OVHcloud states that the DDR5 currently purchased costs six times more than a year ago.
• The new RAM options increase between 68% and 652%, depending on the server and capacity.
• Storage upgrades see increases of up to 166%.
• The new prices for servers took effect on August 11, 2026.
• Existing customers with certain DDR5 generations will face more moderate increases starting on October 1, upon renewal.

The announcement provides an uncommon snapshot of how the race to build AI infrastructure is impacting the broader server market. The issue is no longer confined to GPU pricing or availability. Memory, storage, and other components used by conventional servers are now sharing a supply chain affected by demand levels that differ significantly from just a few years ago.

OVHcloud claims that since September 2025, there has been intense tension in the DDR5 RAM and NVMe drive markets, which has worsened in recent months. According to the company, processors, motherboards, and network cards are also beginning to be affected.

DDR5 takes the worst hit

The most striking data from OVHcloud concerns memory. The company states it now pays six times more for DDR5 than it did a year ago.

Their explanation points directly to AI. The three largest global memory manufacturers have allocated more production capacity to HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), a high-bandwidth memory essential for GPUs and accelerators used in AI training and inference.

This creates indirect competition for industrial capacity. A typical dedicated server might not include any AI GPU, yet still bear some of the costs driven by this demand.

OVHcloud’s new published prices reveal the extent of this shift.

The differences are substantial because OVHcloud has not applied a uniform percentage increase. The company states it has reviewed its catalog item by item to pass through the impact based on each configuration.

This explains why some products show relatively modest increases while others, especially certain memory upgrades, multiply their prices several times over.

Complete servers also see hikes up to 100%

This effect inevitably translates into higher monthly costs for dedicated bare-metal servers.

For example, in the Advance Gen 2026 lineup, the ADVANCE-1 with AMD EPYC 4245P, 32 GB RAM, and two 960 GB NVMe drives goes from €104.99 to €159.99 per month, a 52% increase.

The ADVANCE-5 with Intel Xeon 6527P jumps from €329.99 to €572.99, an increase of 74%.

There are cases of even larger increases. The GAME-1 with AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D doubles its price, from €139.99 to €279.99 per month.

In larger enterprise infrastructures, similar trends occur. The SCALE-A9 Gen 2026, equipped with two AMD EPYC 9965 processors totaling 384 cores, increases from €1,349.99 to €2,299.99 per month, a 70% rise.

Not all machines become more expensive. Some references, such as certain Scale GPU Gen 2024 models, maintain their prices, and the Kimsufi, So you Start, Rise, and earlier generations remain unaffected.

NVMe also feels the pressure

Memory is not the only affected component.

OVHcloud estimates that about 89% of increases in NVMe options are due to price hikes. For example, four 3.84 TB NVMe SSDs in certain Scale Gen 2026 configurations go from €236 to €444 monthly.

Some configurations see even larger jumps. Four 15.36 TB NVMe drives go from €600 to €1,484, a 147% increase in a Scale Gen 2026 setup.

Storage upgrades in High Grade models can rise by as much as 166%.

This situation is especially significant for virtualization platforms, databases, hyperconverged infrastructure, and software-defined storage, where RAM and NVMe constitute a substantial portion of hardware costs.

It also changes typical capacity planning calculations. Overprovisioning a server for future needs previously had predictable costs. Now, with differences of hundreds of euros monthly between RAM tiers, correctly sizing infrastructure becomes financially more critical.

Existing customers will see smaller increases

OVHcloud has decided to differentiate between new purchases and existing servers already in operation.

Memory options for new purchases see a median increase of 127%, whereas existing customers adding upgrades will face increases of 20% on Gen 2024 servers and 40% on Gen 2026 servers.

For storage, the median increase for new orders is 89%, compared to 10% for already deployed Gen 2024 and 15% for Gen 2026 setups.

The company provides an example: an ADVANCE-1 Gen 2026 configured with 128 GB RAM and four 960 GB NVMe drives originally cost €204.99. Upon renewal, the price will rise to €289.49, a 41.2% increase. Configuring a comparable machine now costs €371.99, an 81.5% increase.

Contracts still under commitment will retain their current prices until the end of their term. The new prices will apply on the next renewal.

The timeline has been divided into three phases: the new RAM and storage rates took effect on July 1, the new server prices began on August 11, and the changes for existing affected equipment will take effect on October 1, 2026.

The AI bill starts arriving at servers without GPUs

OVHcloud’s announcement is significant beyond its own customers because it highlights a secondary consequence of AI infrastructure growth.

In recent years, supply issues mainly centered around GPUs. However, an AI data center needs much more than accelerators: servers, CPUs, memory, storage, high-speed networks, power systems, and cooling.

Moreover, HBM shares manufacturers and industrial resources with other memory categories.

Therefore, a company merely looking to deploy a Proxmox cluster, expand RAM in database servers, or increase NVMe storage might find itself competing indirectly with multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure investments.

OVHcloud has a notable aspect that makes its explanation particularly interesting: it designs and assembles its own servers in two factories. The company claims that its purchasing volume and long-term relationships with suppliers help limit availability issues but cannot prevent component price hikes.

It states that suppliers update prices during the second month of each quarter, and these changes are applied across the entire quarter, meaning OVHcloud absorbs the increase immediately.

For system administrators and infrastructure managers, the clear takeaway is: the cost of RAM and storage capacity is once again a variable worth monitoring, especially when planning platforms for the long term.

Deciding whether to buy capacity now, expand later, or outsource as a service can lead to much larger differences than before.

Furthermore, this situation raises questions for the entire cloud market. If the pressure on DDR5, NVMe, and other components persists, adjustments might no longer remain specific to one provider but could increasingly appear in new bare-metal, private cloud, and infrastructure service contracts.

For now, OVHcloud has presented concrete figures. Some are hard to ignore: up to 652% more for certain RAM upgrades and 166% in storage. The AI infrastructure race is no longer just inflating GPU prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do OVHcloud dedicated servers increase?

It varies by model. Published configurations show increases ranging from relatively modest percentages up to 100%, while some hardware options experience much larger jumps.

Why is DDR5 memory prices rising so much?

OVHcloud attributes the increase to high demand related to AI and the shifting of manufacturing capacity toward HBM memory. The company states it now pays six times more for DDR5 than a year ago.

How much does RAM cost increase at OVHcloud?

For new contracts, the options reviewed by OVHcloud show increases between 68% and 652%, with a median of 127%. Existing customers affected by upgrades will see smaller adjustments in their current installations.

When will prices go up for existing customers?

For servers already in production affected by the change, the new prices will apply starting October 1, 2026, upon renewal. Existing commitments retain their current prices until their contract ends.

Source: blog.ovhcloud