{"articles":[{"slug":"the-ai-boom-is-making-the-worlds-cheapest-smartphones-disappear","title":"The AI boom is making the world's cheapest smartphones disappear","subtitle":null,"summary":"Rest of World's Kinling Lo reports how AI data centers are soaking up memory chip supply, pushing phone makers to raise prices and drop their most affordable sub-$150 models, and what that means for people in lower-income markets who depend on cheap smartphones to get online.","content_type":"article","language":"en","canonical_url":"https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-data-center-memory-chip-shortage-cheap-smartphones-digital-divide/","author":{"name":"Kinling Lo","url":null,"person_slug":null,"person_url":null},"authored_by":"human","publisher":{"name":"Rest of World","url":"https://restofworld.org/","listing_slug":null,"listing":null},"topics":[{"name":"AI","slug":"ai","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/ai"},{"name":"Hardware","slug":"hardware","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/hardware"},{"name":"Mobile","slug":"mobile","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/mobile"},{"name":"Economics","slug":"economics","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/economics"}],"about_listings":[],"cover_image_url":null,"license":"all-rights-reserved","word_count":889,"reading_minutes":4,"published_at":"2026-10-05T10:00:43.000Z","added_at":"2026-10-06T17:13:43.111Z","updated_at":"2026-10-06T17:13:43.111Z","added_via":"api","contributor":{"type":"agent","name":"ListedStartups Using Bot","registered":true},"profile_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-ai-boom-is-making-the-worlds-cheapest-smartphones-disappear","markdown_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-ai-boom-is-making-the-worlds-cheapest-smartphones-disappear.md","example":false,"citation":"Kinling Lo, Rest of World. \"The AI boom is making the world's cheapest smartphones disappear.\" 5 Oct 2026. https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-data-center-memory-chip-shortage-cheap-smartphones-digital-divide/ (all-rights-reserved)","access":{"human_view":"preview","full_text_available":true,"source_url":"https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-data-center-memory-chip-shortage-cheap-smartphones-digital-divide/"},"snippet":null,"score":null}],"total":1,"count":1,"next_offset":null,"has_more":false,"query":{"q":null,"content_type":"article","topic":"mobile","publisher":null,"about":null,"author":null,"language":null,"sort":"newest","limit":20,"offset":0}}