JPMorgan: GPU rental prices surged across the board in March, while DRAM and NAND price increases slowed in the second quarter.

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The demand for AI infrastructure continues to heat up, driving a comprehensive increase in GPU rental prices across the board in March 2026, with a particularly notable spike for the B200; meanwhile, although contract prices for memory chips continue to rise, the pace of expansion is expected to moderate in the second quarter.

According to Pursuit Trading Desk, JPMorgan released its data center tracking report on April 19, indicating that rental prices for the three major GPU tiers all rose month-on-month in March, with the B200 soaring by 23.5% in a single month; the price ratio between B200 and H100 also rebounded accordingly.

On storage, according to TrendForce, contract prices for DRAM surged by 96% quarter-on-quarter in Q1, and contract prices for NAND rose by 88% quarter-on-quarter; both are expected to continue rising in Q2, but the growth rates are projected to slow to 61% and 73%, respectively.

The comprehensive uptrend in GPU rental prices reflects robust market demand for high-performance computing power; memory contract prices, measured year-over-year, still maintain several-fold increases, indicating that the supply-demand dynamic has not fundamentally reversed—only the pace of expansion has become more gradual.

B200 leads the charge as GPU rental prices soar across the board in March

According to Bloomberg Index data, as of the end of March 2026, the B200 rental price jumped to $5.47 per GPU hour, a sharp 23.5% month-on-month increase, far exceeding the -0.2% in February and +0.7% in January.

This leap has reversed the downward trend in the B200-H100 premium since the index's launch in September 2025. The price ratio between B200 and H100 rebounded from 1.82 in February to 2.07 in March, although it remains below the approximately 2.63 seen when the index was first introduced.

H100 rental prices continued to rise, reaching $2.64 per GPU hour in March, up 8.6% month-on-month, higher than February’s 5.2% and January’s 4.5%, marking the fourth consecutive month of positive growth.

A100 rental prices stood at $1.48 per GPU hour in March, up 6.5% month-on-month, an acceleration from 3.7% in February and 1.5% in January, and the third consecutive month of accelerating increases.

The price ratio between H100 and A100 also slightly widened from 1.75 in February to 1.78 in March, continuing the expansion trend, which reflects a continued migration of market demand to higher-performance GPU tiers.

DRAM and NAND contract price growth slows in Q2, but remains several times higher year-on-year

According to TrendForce data, DRAM contract prices expanded by 96% quarter-on-quarter in Q1, significantly faster than the 48% recorded in Q4; NAND contract prices grew by 88% in Q1, also surpassing Q4’s 36%.

Entering Q2, both are expected to continue rising but at a slower pace: DRAM contract prices are expected to grow 61% quarter-on-quarter, and NAND contract prices are expected to rise 73% quarter-on-quarter.

From a year-over-year perspective, the gains are still substantial. Latest forecasts show Q2 2026 contract prices for DRAM are expected to rise 421% year-on-year, and NAND contract prices by 362% year-on-year.

Spot prices have diverged. DDR5 16Gb spot price was $31.18 in March, down 6.1% month-on-month, the second consecutive month of decline, but still up 573% year-on-year—almost 7 times the $4.63 of the same period last year.

NAND 1Tb spot prices continued to rise, reporting $28.96 in March, up 16.0% month-on-month and 475% year-on-year—almost 6 times the $5.04 from the same period last year—though the pace of monthly increases has slowed compared to previous months.

Supply-demand dynamics support price center; rising trend remains despite slower growth rates

Overall, the across-the-board rise in GPU rental prices and continued expansion in memory contract prices both point to strong demand-driven momentum under the investment boom in AI infrastructure.

The unusually sharp jump in B200 rental prices is particularly noteworthy, and the rapid recovery of its premium over H100 may suggest that the market is repricing the urgent demand for the latest generation compute power.

On the memory side, the slower pace of contract price increases in Q2 is not a sign of weakening demand, but rather a natural regression due to high base effects.

The two consecutive months of decline in DDR5 spot prices contrasts with the continued rise in NAND spot, possibly reflecting different adjustment rhythms as each product line moves towards supply-demand rebalance.

For equipment manufacturers, storage cost pressures will remain high in Q2, albeit with some marginal easing compared to Q1.

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The content above is from Pursuit Trading Desk.

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