Samsung hikes RAM prices by up to 60 percent

The AI boom is causing prices for certain memory chips from Samsung, the world's largest manufacturer of memory chips, to rise, among other things. This is reported by the news agency Reuters, citing two people familiar with the price increases. Some chip prices have increased by up to 60 percent compared to September. This potentially also affects the prices of other product categories, such as notebooks and smartphones.

AI boom drives memory prices

According to the report, the price increase follows a decision by Samsung to postpone the official announcement of prices for supply contracts in October, although price details are usually announced monthly. The rising prices for DDR5 memory chips, which are mainly used in servers, are likely to further increase the pressure on large companies building data infrastructures, Reuters believes.

Many of the largest server manufacturers and data center operators “are now accepting that they will not get nearly enough products. The price surcharges are extreme,” Tobey Gonnerman, president of semiconductor distributor Fusion Worldwide, told Reuters. According to Gonnerman, Samsung's contract prices for 32 GB DDR5 memory modules rose to $239 in November, compared to $149 in September.

In addition, Samsung also increased prices for 16 GB and 128 GB DDR5 chips by about 50 percent to $135 and $1194, respectively. Prices for 64 GB and 96 GB DDR5 chips have increased by more than 30 percent, it is further stated.

If TrendForce analyst Ellie Wang is to be believed, Samsung could increase quarterly contract prices by 40 to 50 percent in the October to December period, which would be above the industry-wide average of 30 percent expected. “They are really confident that prices will rise. The main reason for this is that demand is very strong at the moment and everyone is working on long-term agreements with suppliers,” she told Reuters. According to Wang, these agreements would apply either for 2026 or for 2026 and 2027 together.

Not only Samsung is increasing RAM prices

Reports of price increases for memory modules have been circulating for a while. Just last week it was reported that manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron would raise their RAM prices and retool their production lines due to high demand for LPDDR5X and HBM3/HBM4 memory.

It is not only the AI boom that is causing memory prices to skyrocket. The end of Windows 10 support would also increase demand for ordinary DDR5 SDRAM for desktop PCs and mini-PCs, as well as LPDDR5X for thin notebooks. Similarly, memory prices for smartphones are likely to lead to higher overall costs, as was already reported by Xiaomi at the end of October: The cost of memory chips has risen much more sharply than expected, and this could worsen. The cost pressure has also been passed on to the pricing of its products, Xiaomi President Lu Weibing wrote on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. This is likely to have a similar effect on smartphones from other manufacturers.

(afl)