Memory Prices Surge and Shortages Won't Stop! Industry Giants Splash Cash to Lock in Orders: Scarcity May Become the New Normal

NightAirdropper · 2026-03-23T23:05:36+00:00

Samsung is entering into long-term memory contracts with Google, Microsoft, and others to meet high-bandwidth memory demands for AI chips, ensuring future capacity and profit maximization. This will delay the easing of tight consumer-grade DRAM supply, making it difficult for memory upgrade costs to decline in the short term.

NightAirdropper

2026-03-23 23:05:36

Abstract generation in progress

TechNews, March 23 — According to South Korean media reports, Samsung is signing long-term memory contracts with tech giants like Google and Microsoft to secure future production capacity.

The demand for HBM from large-scale cloud providers has far exceeded infrastructure expansion needs. The inference deployment of self-developed ASIC chips like Google TPU, Microsoft Maia, and Meta MTIA requires a stable, high-bandwidth memory supply.

According to EBN, “If this model is finalized, Samsung Electronics will gain long-term demand visibility, accelerate capacity expansion, and avoid the price crashes caused by inventory backlog in the past.”

This means, on one hand, storage manufacturers will prioritize future capacity for more profitable AI/HBM sectors; on the other hand, long-term contracts fix spot price levels, significantly delaying the window for alleviating consumer-grade DRAM shortages.

Previously, industry estimates predicted supply shortages would ease by mid-2027, but under the new contract mechanism, this expectation has been invalidated.

Data shows that by 2025, DDR5 prices have risen over 50% since the beginning of the year, and the premium for HBM3E has reached 5-7 times that of standard DRAM.

Samsung, Micron, and other manufacturers lock in demand through long-term contracts, effectively shifting investment risk to downstream, while ensuring maximum profits during the AI cycle.

According to reports, such contracts typically include fixed procurement commitments for 3-5 years, with prices linked to spot indices but with a floor price set for protection. For the consumer market, this means most new capacity in the future will flow into AI sectors, and the cost for average consumers to upgrade memory will not decrease in the short term.

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