The price increase is real, but not as exaggerated as 80%! Samsung refutes rumors of DDR memory prices.

Media reports claim that Samsung Electronics, a storage chip giant based in South Korea, stated in an email reply that rumors of an 80% price increase in the market for its DRAM storage product - DDR series memory modules are not accurate, as specific price increases depend on distributors. Samsung Electronics' large distributors have already issued price increase notices, mainly due to deep-seated changes in the global semiconductor market supply-demand situation, including potential long-term constraints on the supply side, sharp increases in upstream manufacturing costs, and storage chip capacity far below market demand. However, some memory module manufacturers interviewed by the media have pointed out that they have not received any significant price increase notices. According to media reports, another memory module manufacturer stated that Samsung memory module prices are indeed expected to increase significantly, but did not provide specific data on the degree of increase. Earlier this month, reports claimed that South Korea's two largest storage chip manufacturers, also the world's largest two storage chip manufacturers - Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, are considering raising the prices of server-grade DDR series (including DDR4 and DDR5) memory by up to 70% in the first quarter of the year. This is due to the surge in demand caused by the widespread impact of the massive increase in demand for AI training/inference systems in large-scale data centers on the global supply system. In November 2025, there were reports that Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and the U.S.-based storage chip manufacturer Micron Technology, Inc. were facing severe shortages of old-style dynamic RAM (traditional DRAM series memory) products after significantly reducing overall DRAM/NAND capacity in order to focus entirely on high-bandwidth memory (HBM storage systems). Samsung and SK Hynix are aggressively increasing their HBM capacity, while DDR series and enterprise-level SSD prices are skyrocketing. HBM is a necessary storage system for AI GPU/AI ASIC computing clusters built by chip design giants like NVIDIA Corporation, AMD, and Alphabet Inc. Both Samsung and SK Hynix are key suppliers of HBM chips for NVIDIA Corporation, the "AI chip superpower." In addition, reports from South Korea suggest that Samsung is planning to complete customized HBM4E design work for NVIDIA Corporation and AMD by May to June 2026. This latest timeline indicates a shift towards custom HBM4E and future HBM5 capacity focused on AI GPU/AI ASIC integration, despite the standardization of Samsung's HBM4. SK Hynix and Micron are also following similar timelines in advancing next-generation technology research and development. The three major dominant storage chip manufacturers - SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron - are concentrating most of their capacity on HBM storage systems, resulting in a shortage of hard drive-based storage products. Industry statistics show that since September 2025, DDR5 memory prices have increased by more than 300%, and DDR4 memory prices have risen by over 150%. Research from Counterpoint and other organizations shows that the demand for AI server systems' data center-level memory modules is at least 8-10 times that of ordinary server systems, which has severely squeezed the allocation of consumer-level memory DDR series products. Leading global cloud computing service providers such as Alphabet Inc. Class C and Microsoft Corporation have placed large procurement orders, even securing a portion of the three major storage chip manufacturers' idle capacity for the next 2-3 years. Analysts at Citigroup predict that driven by the demand for AI training and inference, the ASP of enterprise-level server DRAM will skyrocket by 144% in 2026 compared to the previous year (previously predicted +91%). For example, the price of a mainstream 64GB DDR5 RDIMM is forecasted to reach $620 in the first quarter of 2026, a 38% increase from the previous forecast of $518. In the NAND sector, Citigroup's forecast is equally aggressive with an expected ASP growth of 74% in 2026 (previously +44%); the ASP of enterprise-level SSDs is expected to increase by 87%. In the analysts' view at Citigroup, the storage chip market will enter an extremely intense seller's market, with pricing power firmly in the hands of storage giants such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, and SanDisk.