Asus is now implementing 'strategic price adjustments' and retailers are already hiking prices for laptops from other brands

If there's one great thing about this year's CES, it's that it's been a nice distraction from all the memory crisis-induced hardware pricing doom and gloom. Admittedly, it's given us its own share of mild gloom with its own expensive products and relentless focus on AI, but that's by-the-by. Now the main excitement is out of the way, though, we can get back to the really bitter pricing stuff, lovely. Stuff, in case you missed it, such as Asus saying it's going to hike its prices.

As reported by Digitimes (via VideoCardz), a letter from Asus speaks about planning to adjust prices for "certain product combinations" from January 5, 2026:

"After carefully reviewing market conditions, supply stability, and our commitments to product quality, and while continuing to invest in technical R&D, Asus plans to implement strategic price adjustments for certain product combinations starting January 5, 2026."

Asus has since clarified to VideoCardz that this document is a private internal business communication and wasn't intended as a public announcement or press material.

That, of course, doesn't really change anything; it's still Asus' plan, as is attested by the fact that it looks like the company has, in fact, started to raise prices now.

According to Mirror Daily, which says it "visited several retailers [in Guanghua Shopping Mall, Taiwan] to inquire about prices", on January 5, one retailer said that that Asus had told retailers that "general word processing laptops will increase in price by NT$3,000 to NT$5,000 [about $95 to $160 in USD], while gaming laptops will increase by NT$8,000 to NT$10,000 [about $255 to $320 in USD]."

This, too, is apparently making retailers raise prices from other brands, as "not only did every retailer in Guanghua Shopping Mall raise prices on the 5th, but every laptop brand sold by Moxun [a store the site visited] will also see a 20% price increase starting Monday."

The cause is—need I say it?—the AI-induced memory shortage. Asus explicitly states as much in its letter, although it also says "global demand in the PC and IT infrastructure markets remains strong." I suppose that demand is the cause, though, so that tracks.

Just flicking around the different big online retailers, I don't see any big Asus laptop price hikes in the US just yet, but I suppose things take a while to filter through. Many retailers will still be working with previous stocks, and plenty still have great deals on them. We were told by retailer Overclockers UK explicitly that once product bought at lower prices sells out, they'll have to raise prices in line with the higher costs charged to them to buy stock. With Asus not denying the credibility of this letter, it's surely just a matter of time.