Double the price! Good news: big news from memory chips
The price increase of memory chips continues. DigiTimes, a research institute, pointed out in its latest report that high-bandwidth memory (HBM) prices are expected to double in 2027 due to the surge in demand for AI (artificial intelligence) and structural bottlenecks in production capacity. At the same time, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said that 2027 is expected to be the most serious year of supply shortage in the memory chip industry. There are various signs that the price increase in the memory chip industry is intensifying.
The price increase of memory chips continues. DigiTimes, a research institute, pointed out in its latest report that high-bandwidth memory (HBM) prices are expected to double in 2027 due to the surge in demand for AI (artificial intelligence) and structural bottlenecks in production capacity. At the same time, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said that 2027 is expected to be the most serious year of supply shortage in the memory chip industry. There are various signs that the price increase in the memory chip industry is intensifying. The chairman of ADATA, a major storage module manufacturer, recently revealed that the price of memory chips will continue to rise in the third quarter of 2026. On July 10, local time, the latest report from DigiTimes quoted industry insiders as saying that HBM prices are expected to double in 2027 due to the dual factors of the explosion in demand for AI computing power and the structural shortage of production capacity. Industry sources say next-generation HBM4 prices could surge from about $2/gigabit in the second half of 2026 to $4 to $5 or even higher. According to reports, the core price increase is due to two major production reasons: on the one hand, the HBM4 process is extremely difficult to manufacture, with a production cycle of 4 to 6 months, and the initial yield rate is low; on the other hand, the wafer area required to produce HBM is three times that of ordinary DDR5 memory, and the existing production line capacity release space has been greatly compressed. Currently, the world's three major HBM manufacturers - Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology - are locking in global memory supply by signing long-term agreements with first-tier AI customers for a period of three to five years. DigiTimes predicts that in 2027, nearly half of the world's DRAM production capacity will be taken over by large customers, making it difficult for small and medium-sized manufacturers to obtain supply shares. At the same time, sources in the supply chain revealed that there will continue to be a fundamental supply gap in AI hardware in 2027. By the end of 2026, chip manufacturers will have full bargaining power, and consumer electronics companies that have not signed long-term supply agreements in advance may encounter a severe memory supply crisis. This year, DDR5 profit margins for some suppliers have exceeded 80%, forcing chipmakers to demand higher HBM pricing to justify shifting away from traditional DRAM production lines. Narratives of tight supply and price increases are becoming powerful catalysts for the memory chip sector. On July 10, Eastern Time, South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix made its debut in the U.S. stock market through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), setting a record issuance scale of US$26.5 billion. Its ADR price soared by more than 12%, which is a significant premium over the share price of Korean common stocks, showing the strong continuation of huge transactions in the U.S. stock memory chip sector. SK Hynix CEO Guo Luzheng said that the global memory chip industry is heading towards the most serious supply shortage in history, and 2027 is expected to be the year with the tightest supply in the industry. Although the company is actively expanding production capacity, he predicts that memory chip demand will continue to exceed the company's production capacity until after 2030. Major memory module manufacturer releases major signal Chen Libai, chairman of ADATA, the world's second largest memory module company, recently revealed that memory chip prices will continue to rise in the third quarter of 2026. Chen Libai said that in the third quarter of 2026, the prices of DRAM and NAND Flash will increase significantly again. The two major product lines have clear growth trends, and the upward path of the storage industry is still accelerating. Chen Libai revealed that memory manufacturers have informed that DRAM contract prices will increase by 20% to 30% in the third quarter, and NAND Flash will increase by 35% to 40%. Prices of both major product lines have maintained an upward trend, which will continue to boost ADATA's performance. Chen Libai said that most of the current production capacity of the three major storage manufacturers in 2026 has been fully booked and sold in advance, and many customers have begun negotiating supply contracts for 2027 and longer. ADATA said that as the demand for AI computing power continues to expand, the production capacity allocated by manufacturers to general-purpose DRAM and consumer-grade solid-state drives and NAND flash memory continues to shrink, and the contradiction between supply and demand in the storage market, which is already in the most tight supply stage, will further intensify. In 2027, the shortage of memory and solid-state drive products may worsen. Prior to this, many institutions also issued reports predicting that memory chip prices will continue to rise in the third quarter of 2026.
According to the latest memory price survey report released by TrendForce, the overall DRAM landscape continued to be extremely scarce in the third quarter. However, due to downward revisions in consumer application demand and a high price base, contract price increases have converged and are expected to increase by 13% to 18% quarter-to-quarter. In terms of NAND Flash, TrendForce believes that the main demand is still supported by AI inference and large-scale data center construction. However, as contract prices have reached historical highs, consumer customers have reached the limit of price tolerance amid slowing demand. It is expected that the overall NAND Flash contract price will increase by 10% to 15% quarter-to-quarter, with the price increase rate significantly reduced compared with previous quarters. In its latest report released in July, UBS significantly raised its memory chip price expectations, saying that DRAM quotations will rise by 32% in the third quarter (previously expected to be 17%) and another 18% in the fourth quarter (previously expected to be 12%); NAND Flash quotations are expected to rise by 30% in the third quarter and by another 12% in the fourth quarter. (
According to the latest memory price survey report released by TrendForce, the overall DRAM landscape continued to be extremely scarce in the third quarter. However, due to downward revisions in consumer application demand and a high price base, contract price increases have converged and are expected to increase by 13% to 18% quarter-to-quarter. In terms of NAND Flash, TrendForce believes that the main demand is still supported by AI inference and large-scale data center construction. However, as contract prices have reached historical highs, consumer customers have reached the limit of price tolerance amid slowing demand. It is expected that the overall NAND Flash contract price will increase by 10% to 15% quarter-to-quarter, with the price increase rate significantly reduced compared with previous quarters. In its latest report released in July, UBS significantly raised its memory chip price expectations, saying that DRAM quotations will rise by 32% in the third quarter (previously expected to be 17%) and another 18% in the fourth quarter (previously expected to be 12%); NAND Flash quotations are expected to rise by 30% in the third quarter and by another 12% in the fourth quarter. (