ProGrade Digital in Japan has announced that it is raising the prices of its products, including memory cards. The company said that the price rises are a response to the significant price increase of flash memory due to the surge in demand associated with the construction of AI infrastructure.
ProGrade Digital made the announcement in a press release on its Japanese website on December 29. This article is based on an automatic translation via Google Chrome.
What has ProGrade Digital said?
The press release from ProGrade Digital stated, “Due to the rapid increase in demand for semiconductor memory associated with the construction of AI infrastructure, and the resulting significant increase in flash memory prices, ProGrade Digital Inc. will raise the regular prices on the Amazon.co.jp ProGrade Digital Inc. store on January 8, 2026. At the same time, the exchange rate, currently $1 = 150 yen, will be changed to $1 = 155 yen to reflect the current exchange rate. Please refer to the price list for the new regular prices.”
Memory card price increases
As part of the press release, ProGrade Digital published a table showing all of the products affected by the price increases. The 1TB V60 Gold SDXC UHS-II memory card is going to cost a whopping 123% more. In addition, the 128GB and 256GB versions of that card are increasing in price by 107.6% and 106% respectively. The microSD variants of those two cards are also going up by 104.4% and 104.2% respectively.
Other price increases
ProGrade Digital’s SSDs have also been affected by the price hikes. The 2TB PG30 USB3.2 Gen 2 portable SSD will cost 106.5% more after January 8 next year. Addiitonally, ProGrade Digital’s card readers and Thunderbolt hubs are going to be more expensive, though by only around 3-4%.
Full table of price increases
What we think
The news has been filled with increasingly cautionary tales of the perils of AI over the past few years. However, the impact on memory prices is undeniable, as anyone looking to upgrade their computer’s RAM this year will know. Now memory cards and other storage devices are starting to be affected as well. At the moment, ProGrade Digital’s announcement only relates to Japan. However, it’s likely that the higher prices will come into force around the world before long. If you are looking to get some more memory cards for your camera, don’t delay, or you might end up paying more.
