Euro hosting giant hiking prices by up to 50% from April Fool's Day
The Register
February 24, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Hetzner, one of Europe's largest datacenter operators, has announced significant price increases of up to 50% starting April 1. This hike will affect both existing customers and new orders across its global locations, including Germany, Finland, the US, and Singapore. The company attributes the rise to escalating costs for hardware and infrastructure operations due to persistent memory shortages in the IT sector. While major hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are less impacted by these immediate price shocks thanks to long-term vendor agreements, smaller providers such as Hetzner face increased pressure to pass on rising costs to users.
The global semiconductor supply chain is struggling with severe shortages of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), flash storage, and AI-specific silicon like NVIDIA GPUs. This scarcity has driven up prices for key components, with DRAM and NAND flash prices expected to double in the current quarter. Additionally, server CPU supplies are constrained, and hard drive manufacturers have already sold out their projected production for the year. These factors contribute to the dramatic price hikes observed across the industry.
According to Omdia Senior Research Director Vlad Galabov, this situation reflects the "brutal reality" of the hardware supply chain. While hyperscalers can negotiate long-term contracts to mitigate immediate cost increases, smaller providers like Hetzner lack such leverage and must adjust prices accordingly. This dynamic highlights a two-tiered market where smaller operators are more vulnerable to price shocks compared to their larger counterparts.
The implications for tech enthusiasts and businesses relying on budget-friendly cloud infrastructure could be significant. Higher costs may force some customers to seek alternatives or scale back operations, potentially disrupting innovation and growth in the tech sector. The situation underscores the importance of a stable hardware supply chain and its direct impact on pricing strategies across the IT industry.
Verticals
tech
Originally published on The Register on 2/24/2026