S’porean resellers are cashing in on outdated laptops, because of AI
Most individuals assume the most well liked trades as we speak are apparent ones: gold, Nvidia shares, or something associated to synthetic intelligence (AI).
However inside Singapore’s electronics markets, one other unlikely asset is quietly surging in worth: used laptops.
Sure—outdated, second-hand laptops that many individuals would usually promote for a couple of hundred {dollars} or throw right into a drawer are actually turning into unexpectedly useful.
And in locations like Sim Lim Sq., some companies are already turning that demand into revenue.
Why used laptops abruptly matter
Within the tech world, we’re seeing a brand new form of value distortion—and it’s being pushed by the AI increase.
Synthetic intelligence is quickly reshaping the worldwide semiconductor business. Coaching and operating AI fashions requires monumental computing energy, which in flip depends upon huge quantities of high-performance reminiscence and storage inside information centres.
To satisfy this demand, main reminiscence producers equivalent to Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have more and more shifted manufacturing capability towards high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) and different specialised chips utilized in AI servers.
As producers give attention to AI servers, fewer chips are being made for on a regular basis gadgets.
Meaning older, lower-end elements, such because the random entry reminiscence (RAM) chips present in shopper laptops, are abruptly briefly provide, triggering what some business observers name the “RAMpocalypse.”
Costs have surged dramatically.
In some circumstances, RAM chips have jumped 300-400% in latest months, making a provide squeeze that’s rippling throughout the electronics ecosystem. For customers, this implies many gadgets have gotten tougher to entry, placing purchases of laptops and desktops out of attain for some.
In an interview with The Straits Occasions, T. Okay. Lee, a technical supervisor at Bizgram Asia, which sells new PCs and digital gadgets, shared that costs for brand new laptops and desktops have risen 50-100% on common. Even Apple has lately elevated the costs of its MacBook Air and MacBook Professional fashions by about S$100 to S$450 in gentle of the worldwide reminiscence chip scarcity.
Lim expects costs to climb additional as PC producers deplete present shares and negotiate new provide contracts.
A “very worthwhile” enterprise
Amid the worldwide reminiscence scarcity, used-laptop resellers in Singapore are cashing in.
At retailers in Sim Lim Sq., a few of them have pivoted their enterprise mannequin, specializing in dismantling laptops to extract RAM chips and different elements in excessive demand.
“This enterprise is best than gold or the inventory market. Gold costs and the inventory market have dipped, however the costs of pc chips haven’t,” a vendor informed The Straits Occasions. He added that the enterprise has been “very worthwhile,” although he declined to disclose margins.
Extracted elements are sometimes shipped abroad, the place consumers pay premiums for high-demand components. Even the remaining components of the laptops hardly ever go to waste. Motherboards, circumstances, and different {hardware} are usually offered to restore retailers or enterprise clients—these elements are sometimes used to refurbish different laptops, exchange damaged components, or lengthen the lifespan of older gadgets.
Alex Capri, a senior lecturer at NUS Enterprise College, stated that the follow of sending used expertise merchandise overseas to salvage components highlights the “fluid secondary marketplace for shopper electronics.”
“It’s not low-cost to interrupt down a laptop computer and extract a chip, so this means these things are in excessive demand and fetching good costs,” he stated. “It pays to do these strip-down operations at scale.”
Some sellers have even discovered that promoting these elements could be extra profitable than dealing in new gadgets.
One other laptop computer supplier, who spoke to The Straits Occasions however requested anonymity, stated revenue margins on new gadgets have shrunk as costs rise because of the tight provide of important elements like RAM chips.
“There’s extra quantity now to show a revenue available in the market for used gadgets,” he added, noting that his most important shoppers are in Indonesia and India.
The rise in used-laptop buying and selling and part exports in Singapore can be mirrored in digital non-oil re-exports (NORX). NORX measures the nominal worth of products which have been manufactured abroad, imported into Singapore, and exported in the identical type with out transformation. PCs and PC components have been among the many high drivers in 2025.
With AI-related demand anticipated to develop, notably for high-performance PCs and servers, this secondary marketplace for used electronics is prone to stay robust.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Stenko Vlad by way of Shutterstock.com
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