Your Next Laptops Will Cost More
Build rising technology costs into your budget and grant applications now, before your board or a funder is surprised by the number.
If you’ve looked at buying laptops lately, you may have noticed the number is bigger than you remember. Memory chips and storage, the components inside every laptop, desktop, and server, are in short supply because AI data centers are buying them up at a scale the industry has never seen before. On top of that, tariffs on electronics and components from overseas have added a second layer of uncertainty to pricing in the United States. What matters for your organization is what it means for your budget, your grant applications, and your replacement planning.
AI is Driving Up Computer Costs Everywhere
Why would AI drive up your costs? It’s less about how much AI anyone is using and more about the global supply chain. Manufacturers are shifting production of the memory and storage chips that go into your laptops toward ones used by AI servers, because that’s where demand is strongest. At the same time, chip manufacturing is already running at full capacity. Bringing a new fabrication plant online takes years and billions of dollars, so supply will likely stay tight for the next few years. Unless the AI chip demand cools significantly and frees up that capacity, these price increases are probably here to stay.
This squeeze is showing up in a few places you might not expect:
- Software subscriptions. Microsoft and Google have both raised prices on parts of their business and enterprise plans over the past year, and AI features are increasingly bundled in rather than optional, which affects the baseline price.
- You’re already paying for AI, so make sure you can use it if you choose to. As AI gets bundled into your core licenses, training and readiness support become the way to get full value from what you’re already spending. That’s a strong case to bring to your funders for new AI literacy and readiness support.
- Cloud storage. As the underlying hardware gets more expensive, expect providers to pass some of that along in storage and backup pricing over time.
- Electricity and water. In some regions, the buildout of AI data centers is putting real strain on the power grid and water supply, which is nudging utility costs up for everyone nearby, nonprofits included.
This is a sector-wide shift, and that’s also useful context to have when you talk to your board or funders about your IT budget for the next few years.
Should you buy now, or stretch your replacement cycle?
There’s no single right answer. It depends on your organization’s cash position, your grant cycle timing, and how much risk you’re comfortable carrying on aging hardware. A few factors worth weighing:
Reasons to buy or order sooner rather than later:
- Prices are trending up, not down, and most forecasts expect that to continue for at least the next year or two.
- If a laptop is already near the end of its useful life, an unplanned failure is more disruptive (and often more expensive) than a planned replacement.
- Lead times can stretch out during shortages, so ordering ahead gives you more flexibility and peace of mind.
- Funders in 2026 understand the nonprofit sector is under strain. Many are prepared to help bridge gaps in funding in order to keep the lights on and the tech operational.
Reasons to wait or stretch your replacement cycle:
- If your current devices are healthy and well-supported, there’s no security reason to replace them early just because.
- Stretching a 4-year replacement cycle to 5 years is a sensible cost-saving move, as long as you keep software patched and watch for performance or security issues as machines age. Community IT doesn’t recommend stretching past 5 years for replacements if you can help it. Whatever your replacement cycle, aim to do a fraction of that yearly so the devices don’t all come due at once. For a 4-year cycle, you replace 1/4 of your oldest laptops annually, and so on.
- Committing cash now to hardware you don’t yet need isn’t necessarily the better trade if your organization has other pressing needs.
Look at your own equipment inventory and your own budget calendar, not a rule of thumb. If you don’t already have a rolling replacement schedule that flags which machines are coming due, that’s a good exercise to do alongside this conversation, and it’s one your IT provider should be able to help you with, and a prudent move your funders should support.
Put it in the budget and the grant application, in writing, now
Whatever you decide about timing, the most useful thing you can do this budget cycle is make the cost increase visible and explained, rather than something that surprises anyone later.
A few practical steps:
- Ask your IT provider for current pricing and lead times on the hardware you’re likely to need in the next 12 to 18 months, so your budget reflects real numbers rather than last year’s line items.
- Add a line or a note in grant applications that names the cost pressure directly: technology hardware and related costs have risen due to global supply and component shortages, and your budget reflects that.
- Talk to your program and finance staff about building in a modest contingency for IT costs rather than a flat number carried over from last year.
Your funders are almost certainly seeing the same cost increases in their own operations, and many are already hearing about this from other grantees. Explain your changing technology costs plainly, reflecting real-world technology cost increases, and show your research where appropriate.
We’ve been here before
This isn’t the first IT disruption nonprofits have had to plan around. During the pandemic, we wrote about IT supply chain delays and how ordering ahead and staying flexible on equipment specifics helped our clients get through it.
Although the causes of the current price increases are more about supply and demand pressures than supply chain disruption, the advice holds up well: plan a little further ahead than feels natural, keep your options open on exact models and brands, and lean on your IT provider to track pricing and availability so you can update your funders before your IT is in a crisis.
If you want help thinking through your own replacement schedule and budget, or need a tech assessment to set a baseline for your budget and strategic planning, let’s talk.
As advocates for using technology to work smarter, we’re practicing what we recommend. This article was drafted with the assistance of AI, but the content was reviewed, edited, and finalized by a human editor to ensure accuracy and relevance.