Memory: Price explosions reflected in the revenue of the "Big Three"
In just three months, DRAM manufacturers have increased their revenue by over 30 percent. Further price increases are expected.
(Image: Mark Mantel / heise medien)
Memory manufacturers have reason to celebrate. Their revenue already increased significantly in the third quarter of 2025, even before the largest price increases reached the market. This is according to a valuation by market observer Trendforce, which specializes in memory.
According to this, all memory manufacturers together generated around 41.4 billion US dollars in revenue from July to the end of September. This would correspond to growth of almost 31 percent within a single quarter. It shows how quickly the current memory shortage is having an effect.
SK Hynix only slightly ahead of Samsung
According to Trendforce, SK Hynix remains the global market leader by a narrow margin with revenue of almost 13.8 billion US dollars. The manufacturer benefited the least from the AI boom and the resulting high demand for memory, with an increase of 12.4 percent. The revenue of the former market leader Samsung increased by 30.4 percent to 13.5 billion US dollars.
Among the three global market leaders – the so-called Big Three – Micron saw the strongest growth. Thanks to increasing delivery volumes and higher prices at the same time, revenue increased by 53.2 percent to almost 10.7 billion US dollars.
Other manufacturers grew even more strongly but are far behind. Nanya, in 4th place, achieved an increase of 84 percent to 627 million US dollars. SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron share almost 92 percent of the global market among themselves.
(Image:Â Trendforce)
Further price increases on the way
Trendforce expects negotiated contract prices between memory manufacturers and buyers to increase by 45 to 55 percent for various DRAM types in the fourth quarter. So-called spot prices on the stock exchange for spontaneous manufacturer purchases could rise even more sharply.
The prices for DDR5 kits have already multiplied in this country in recent weeks. 16 GByte are now only available for more than 100 euros. With the expected cost increases, prices are likely to rise further.
The reason is the scarcity due to the AI boom. Hyperscalers are buying large quantities of available memory. Other manufacturers are outbidding each other to get the remaining available stock.
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Improvement is slow to arrive
According to Trendforce, the delivery volumes of memory manufacturers are expected to grow only slowly in the coming months. Significant production expansions are apparently not expected until the end of 2026.
Reports from The Korea Economic Daily (KED Global) and according to etnews indicate that Samsung and SK Hynix alone plan to increase their production by several hundred thousand wafers by the end of 2026. This is expected to correspond to an increase of about 30 percent. However, the complete additional capacity is not expected to reach the market until 2027. A wafer typically takes several months to complete. In addition, there are delivery times.
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