Steam Deck shortage goes global as AI memory crunch deepens

The Steam Deck portable gaming console is becoming increasingly difficult to buy — and not just in the United States. After weeks of spotty availability in the U.S. and parts of Asia, the shortage has now spread to Canada and Europe.

Valve has confirmed that the issue stems from shortages of memory and storage components in certain regions. What began as isolated stock problems is now shaping up to be a broader global supply squeeze.

According to reports from GamingOnLinux and checks across multiple regional pages of the Valve official store, the Steam Deck is currently unavailable in Germany, Austria, Poland, France, and several other EU countries, as well as in Canada and Japan. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, stock remains available in Australia, the U.K., Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan.

There is one important caveat: the LCD version of the Steam Deck is no longer in production, which explains why that model is out of stock almost everywhere. The broader availability issues, however, affect the current lineup as well.

It remains unclear when stock will normalize in the affected regions. Valve’s East Asian partner, Komodo Station, estimates that availability in its markets should return by the end of the month, but no global timeline has been provided.

As for the reasons behind the shortage, Valve addressed them briefly:

Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages.

The current memory and storage crunch is being driven by the AI infrastructure boom, as tech giants and hyperscalers invest billions into data centers packed with vast numbers of AI GPUs. These systems require large amounts of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and NAND storage.

Because AI companies are willing to pay premium prices, chipmakers are prioritizing their orders. That leaves less production capacity for consumer devices — including the Steam Deck. In other words, gaming handhelds are now competing directly with AI clusters for the same pool of memory and storage chips.

The Steam Deck isn’t the first device to feel the impact. RAM modules and SSDs were hit earlier, with prices rising between 2× and 5× compared to last year. Laptop manufacturers followed, with companies such as Dell, Lenovo, and Framework announcing price hikes linked to component costs. Even Apple has warned that memory constraints will weigh more heavily on its Q2 earnings as it works to secure supply.

The Steam Deck may be the first gaming handheld hit this hard, but it likely won’t be the last if supply pressures persist.