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Global memory chip shortage to remain despite output ramps
The global shortage of commodity memory chips is expected to continue into 2027, despite efforts by leading manufacturers to increase production.
According to analysts, expansion plans by companies such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are unlikely to fully address the supply gap.
Micron recently announced a US$1.8 billion acquisition of a fabrication plant in Taiwan, aiming to boost capacity for advanced DRAM chips by 2027.
The company also broke ground on a US$100 billion plant in New York to produce high-bandwidth memory used in AI data centers.
Meanwhile, Samsung plans to increase its next-generation 1C DRAM production to 200,000 wafers per month by late 2026, and SK Hynix has invested in a new chip packaging facility expected to be operational by late 2027.
🔗 Source: South China Morning Post
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Key metrics must be checked to quantify the memory supply gap
- A multi-year shortage of general-purpose memory chips such as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is described, yet the size of the supply and demand gap is not pinned down.
- 2026 DRAM supply growth is projected by IDC to run below historical norms at 16% year-on-year, while bit demand forecasts are not provided in the sources cited 1.
- A 55–60% quarter-on-quarter jump for conventional DRAM contract prices in 1Q26 is forecast by TrendForce, but pricing beyond that point is not laid out in the cited material 2.
- The share of wafer capacity being shifted from conventional DRAM to high-margin high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence data centres has not been quantified, even though IDC calls the shift a “zero-sum game” for production allocation 1.
Soaring memory prices raise the importance of memory-efficiency approaches
- Longer shortages can lift demand for tools that cut memory use.
- The crunch is expected to last until 2027, while TrendForce projects server DRAM prices will rise by more than 60% quarter-on-quarter in 1Q26 2.
- Higher bills can push data centre operators and enterprises to stretch existing capacity, which can lift interest in Compute Express Link (CXL), an industry standard for connecting CPUs to memory and accelerators, for memory pooling and expansion.
- IDC warns RAM upgrades for AI PCs could become “prohibitively expensive,” which can strengthen the case for vendors selling memory-efficiency products and for investors funding them 1.