After nearly 30 years, Crucial will stop selling RAM to consumers

In a significant shift, Micron Technology has revealed plans to discontinue its consumer RAM division under the Crucial brand by 2026, marking the end of nearly three decades of service to PC builders and tech enthusiasts. The decision, announced on Wednesday, is attributed to the skyrocketing demand for memory and storage driven by advancements in AI data centers. Sumit Sadana, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Micron, expressed the challenging nature of this choice, stating, "The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage." He emphasized that exiting the Crucial consumer segment would allow Micron to enhance supply and support for larger, more strategic customers in rapidly expanding markets. While the consumer line will be phased out, Micron confirmed that it will continue to distribute Crucial products until the end of its fiscal second quarter in February 2026, and warranties on existing items will be honored. The company will also maintain its focus on Micron-branded enterprise products for commercial clients and plans to reassign affected employees to other roles within the organization. Established in 1996 during the Pentium era, Crucial has been a key player in the consumer RAM and storage upgrade market, expanding over the years to include a variety of memory-related products such as SSDs and portable storage drives. Micron’s history in RAM manufacturing dates back to 1981, and this latest announcement comes amidst a backdrop of soaring memory prices, with the cost of a typical 32GB DDR5 RAM kit increasing dramatically from approximately $82 in August to around $310 now, with even steeper hikes noted for higher-capacity kits.