Driven by the global expansion of AI infrastructure, the surge in demand for memory has strained the supply chain. Earlier, the Raspberry Pi...AnnounceStarting today, the company will raise the prices of several of its products, including some models of the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5, with increases ranging from $5 to $25.
Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton stated in an official blog post that the current pressure to raise memory prices mainly comes from competition in AI infrastructure, but emphasized that once prices stabilize, the price increase measures are expected to be lifted, believing that such a situation is only "temporary".
The price of the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 has increased by $25, and the Compute Module 5 has also been affected.
According to the official price increase list, the larger the memory capacity of the model, the higher the price increase:
• Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB):It rose from $120 to $145 (an increase of $25).
• Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB):It rose from $80 to $95 (an increase of $15).
• Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB/8GB):The increases were $5 and $10 respectively.
In addition, the 16GB version of the Compute Module 5 for industrial applications has also increased by $20, and will be sold starting at $140.
Against the trend, a 1GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5 is being launched for $45, with no compromises in specifications.
However, Raspberry Pi also announced the launch of a new 1GB memory version, the Raspberry Pi 5, with a suggested retail price of only US$45 (approximately NT$1450).
This new entry-level option doesn't compromise on core specifications, still featuring a quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor running at 2.4GHz, and retaining dual-band Wi-Fi and a PCI Express slot. For lightweight projects with low memory requirements, it will be the most economical choice to experience the performance of the Raspberry Pi 5.
AI devours memory, DIY enthusiasts suffer collateral damage.
Eben Upton explained that the insatiable demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) from AI applications is impacting the production capacity of the LPDDR memory used in the Raspberry Pi, leading to soaring costs. This reflects the current state of the technology industry: AI demand is like a vacuum cleaner, draining the market's memory and GPU resources, which in turn puts upward pressure on hardware costs in other areas.
