Overview
- Reports in early July 2026 say Samsung has verbally notified some customers that it is negotiating roughly a 20 percent quarter-over-quarter price increase for commodity DRAM and larger increases for LPDDR in Q3.
- Investment bank UBS sharply raised its forecasts this week, projecting DDR contract prices could rise about 32 percent in Q3 and NAND about 30 percent as AI-driven demand outpaces supply.
- Market tracker TrendForce expects price growth to continue but at a more moderate 13–18 percent for DRAM and 10–15 percent for NAND in Q3 because consumer buyers are reaching affordability limits.
- Hyperscalers are reallocating wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers and locking volumes through long-term agreements and prepayments, creating a persistent shortfall for commodity DRAM and mobile memory.
- Three suppliers control most advanced memory production and announced multi-year fab expansions, but new capacity needs years to ramp so tight supply and elevated prices are likely to persist through 2027 and into 2028.