After a month-long surge, report: Samsung Electronics Q1 DRAM price increase adjusted from 70% to 100%
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The AI infrastructure investment boom continues to heat up, exacerbating the global imbalance between memory supply and demand. Samsung Electronics’ first-quarter DRAM price increase has ultimately been confirmed above 100%, further raised from the negotiation results a month ago.
On March 4, according to South Korean technology media The Elec, Samsung Electronics finished final negotiations last month with major customers over first-quarter DRAM supply prices. The average price for server, PC, and mobile general DRAM rose by about 100% compared to last quarter, doubling from last year’s fourth quarter, with some customers and products seeing price increases even exceeding 100%.
The report, citing industry insiders, revealed that negotiations have been fully wrapped up, and some overseas clients have completed payments. This increase, compared to the 70% level agreed in January this year, has expanded by about 30 percentage points in just one month.
The rapid rise in prices is reshaping contractual practices in the memory industry. Supply negotiation periods have compressed from traditional annual contracts to quarterly contracts, and now even require monthly adjustments, reflecting the severity of the supply-demand imbalance in the market.
HBM encroaches on capacity, limiting general DRAM supply
The core driver of this surge in DRAM prices comes from global expansion of AI infrastructure investment. As data center operators deploy AI chips on a large scale, demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) supporting computing power has soared. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron have all shifted production capacity toward HBM, significantly squeezing the supply of general DRAM for servers, PCs, and mobile devices.
While supply contracts, demand remains strong. Demand for end products like AI servers, AI PCs, and AI smartphones continues to flourish, with the supply-demand gap widening and prices persistently rising. Reportedly, some overseas tech giants have traveled to South Korea specifically to negotiate directly with Samsung Electronics and other memory manufacturers, further intensifying expectations of market strain.
SK Hynix and Micron’s increases are comparable
This price hike is not an action taken solely by Samsung Electronics. According to industry sources, SK Hynix and Micron have likewise completed first-quarter supply contract negotiations with similar price increases, forming a basic pattern where the three major memory manufacturers have collectively raised prices.
Looking back to January this year, Samsung’s quarterly DRAM contract price increased by about 70%, with NAND rising about 100%. This already attracted widespread market attention. This time, DRAM’s increase has further expanded to over 100%, indicating that amid ongoing negotiations, demand growth keeps outpacing supply expansion, forcing the price center to climb once again.
Price surge expected to continue into the second quarter
Market expectations for upward movement in memory prices remain strong. The report cited research institute Gartner, which predicts that DRAM and solid-state drive (SSD) prices combined will rise about 130% from last year. Nvidia delivered its best-ever performance on February 25th, further dispelling concerns over an AI bubble and providing strong support for continued expansion of memory demand.
According to industry sources, second-quarter DRAM and NAND prices will continue rising, though momentum may slow somewhat—but price increases themselves are an irreversible trend. For downstream customers, the persistent increase in memory procurement costs will further push up the overall cost structure of servers and end devices.
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