Overview
- A federal class-action complaint was filed on June 25, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and was assigned to Judge Noel Wise.
- The suit alleges the three firms coordinated since 2022 to cut output of DDR3 and DDR4 while pivoting capacity to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centers, a strategy the complaint says helped push commodity DRAM prices roughly 700% higher over four years.
- Plaintiffs point to the trio’s roughly 90% share of the global DRAM market and the $15–$20 billion cost and years-long build time for a single fab to argue that new entrants cannot meaningfully discipline prices.
- The complaint seeks class certification, an injunction to stop the alleged conduct, and treble damages, while the defendants have not publicly answered and no trial date has been set.
- The filing cites past Department of Justice prosecutions from the early 2000s and notes earlier private litigation that was dismissed, setting up a legal battle over whether parallel business decisions or an unlawful agreement explain the supply shifts and price rises.