AI RAM crisis pushed Steam Machine price above $1,000

The Steam Machine launched with a base price of over $1,000, rising further if you opt for more storage or a Steam Controller. Valve told outlets around the unveiling that the device’s price increase was “probably similar” to the bump seen by the Steam Deck. Those Deck increases—$550 to $790 for the base model, $650 to $950 for the 1TB—translate to roughly a $250 add-on to the Steam Machine.

Doing the math, that works out to about a $750 pre-hike Steam Machine. Valve attributed the jump to a RAM shortage caused by the AI rush: the demand to build larger AI data centers has consumed much of the memory supply, pushing up component costs for gaming hardware and other devices.

That higher bill gets passed to consumers, and price hikes have appeared across Valve’s hardware and the three console makers. Analysts expect further increases in the coming years before chip manufacturing capacity frees up.

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