GoKawiilIn Samsung’s full earnings report released on April 30, 2026, the company’s memory chief Kim Jaejune warned that “significant shortages” across memory products are expected to continue through at least 2027. According to the company, demand fulfillment rates have fallen to record lows as customers rush to secure future supply, SCMP reports. The warning closely mirrors comments made by “rival” SK Hynix during its earnings call just a week earlier.
Together with US-based Micron Technology, Samsung and SK hynix control well over 90% of the global DRAM market. When two of the world’s three biggest memory suppliers simultaneously warn of multi-year shortages, it wouldn’t be too out of place to worry.
The shortages are being driven largely by the need for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Modern AI systems require enormous amounts of high-speed memory to continuously feed data to GPUs and accelerators. At the center of this demand surge is HBM (high-bandwidth memory), a vertically stacked form of DRAM designed to deliver extremely high bandwidth while remaining physically close to processors.
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HBM has become critical for AI accelerators. However, the technology is difficult and expensive to manufacture, requiring advanced die stacking, precision bonding, and sophisticated packaging techniques. As a result, supply is limited, and demand is outpacing manufacturers' ability to build capacity.
While the shortage is driven primarily by HBM demand, its effects are beginning to spill over into the broader memory market. Because HBM itself is a form of DRAM, manufacturers are increasingly reallocating manufacturing capacity, engineering resources, and investment toward high-margin AI memory products. That shift risks tightening supply for more conventional DRAM products used in servers, PCs, and mobile devices. Enterprise SSD demand is also rising as AI data centers require massive storage infrastructure alongside compute hardware.
Ironically, the industry is simultaneously searching for alternatives because current memory architectures consume enormous amounts of power. We recently reported on efforts to develop next-generation memory technologies such as 3D X-DRAM and ZAM (Z-Angle Memory), which aim to reduce power consumption and ease scaling limitations.
Yet despite massive investment into future alternatives, demand for the existing memory technologies remains overwhelming.
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Samsung reportedly stated that some customers have already secured supply allocations through 2027. Earlier this year, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won suggested that AI-related memory demand pressure may persist even toward 2030.
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