The global surge in artificial intelligence development has triggered a severe supply shortage for memory chips. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have seen their standard memory inventory levels drop below the 10-day critical threshold, a significant decline from the standard safety margin of 4 to 6 weeks.
The inventory depletion is driven by cloud service providers and data center operators aggressively securing high-performance DRAM and enterprise-grade storage to build AI infrastructure. Manufacturers have shifted a substantial portion of their advanced DRAM wafer production capacity toward High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to meet demand from Nvidia and AMD.
Producing HBM3E and next-generation HBM4 chips requires significantly more wafer area and complex packaging compared to standard DRAM. This reallocation has caused a supply squeeze for general-purpose DDR5 and LPDDR5X memory used in servers, PCs, and smartphones, leading to a near-zero turnover state for manufacturers.
Market analysts anticipate that the ongoing supply constraints will grant manufacturers increased pricing power. Projections indicate that server DRAM and high-end memory prices could experience significant double-digit growth starting in the second half of 2026, as companies continue to secure long-term supply agreements.
The industry remains vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, as any operational failure at production sites could lead to severe market volatility. While both Samsung and SK Hynix are planning capacity expansions, the time required for facility construction and yield optimization suggests that the current supply-demand imbalance will persist for several quarters.
