Supply-Demand Imbalance Triggers Price Surge in Storage Industry, Impacting Multiple Links of the Industrial Chain
Since 2025, the global storage market has been continuously experiencing a “supply shortage and price surge” trend. Prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory have risen sharply, and all links of the industrial chain, from upstream original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to downstream terminal manufacturers, have been significantly affected, with profound adjustments taking place in the industry structure.
The supply shortage in the global DRAM market is particularly severe. Prices of downstream modules have soared, and products are in short supply. For the first time in the channel sector, a allocation model of “purchasing DRAM modules with an equal number of motherboards” has emerged. Motherboard manufacturers such as MSI and AOpen have benefited from their supply chain advantages. MSI has collaborated with ADATA to launch the world’s first DDR5 5600 CUDIMM high-capacity module supporting the 4-RANK architecture, while AOpen has obtained the agency rights for memory products of Micron and Crucial brands.
The continuous decline in inventory of original storage manufacturers confirms the market boom. By the end of the third quarter, the inventory of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division had dropped to 27 trillion won, a decrease of 4 trillion won compared with the end of 2023, and the finished product inventory had plummeted by 47.7%. The proportion of SK Hynix’s inventory in total assets fell to 8.9%, and the average inventory of global DRAM suppliers dropped to a historic low of 3.3 weeks, which is regarded by the industry as a sign of the arrival of a semiconductor super cycle.
The supply-demand imbalance has driven a sharp rise in prices. Samsung has increased the price of 32GB DDR5 from 149 in September to 239, a 60% increase. Prices of products with specifications such as 16GB and 128GB have also increased by 30% to 50%. The NAND flash memory market has also heated up. After SanDisk’s contract quotation soared by 50%, four leading companies including Samsung and SK Hynix plan to raise prices by 20% to 30%, and have all reduced supply in the second half of this year.
Behind the price surge, AI demand has become the core driving force. A Samsung staff member revealed that the production capacity of consumer-grade storage chips has been largely allocated to the production of enterprise-grade products, and the HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) production capacity of SK Group for the next two years has been fully booked. At the same time, the AI boom has driven a surge in demand for ESSDs (Enterprise Solid-State Drives) in data centers, further exacerbating the tight market supply.
This situation has caused a chain reaction in the downstream of the industrial chain. Due to concerns that rising storage prices will affect terminal sales, motherboard manufacturers have suspended or launched a small number of new motherboards. There are also reports that NVIDIA has suspended the production of the RTX 50 Super series graphics cards. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) revealed that due to the uncertainty of storage supply, customers are reluctant to place large orders for the first quarter of next year. Terminal manufacturers in fields such as mobile phones and automobiles are also facing both price pressure and supply risks.
The industry expects that this round of storage chip price surge will last at least until the first half of 2026, and the prices of various electronic products launched from 2026 to 2027 may increase accordingly. All parties in the industrial chain are actively responding to the dual challenges of cost and supply.