Despite the recent massive price increases for RAM that have shocked enthusiasts, manufacturers aren’t expected to meaningfully increase production of standard memory to offset the demand from the AI industry. According to TrendForce, memory makers are limiting their capital expenditure on building additional capacity, instead focusing on research and development of process technology, improving density through stacking, and the far more lucrative HBM chips for AI accelerators (HBM requires more wafers to produce than standard memory types).
The three biggest memory chip makers — Micron, SK hynix, and Samsung — are anticipated to spend $54 billion on capital expenditure, but this is focused on improving the performance of HBM modules for AI chips. So, despite the 14% year-on-year growth in investments in the DRAM sector, they will not increase the available bit output of memory chips. Because of this, we can assume the ongoing shortage will continue into next year and well into 2027. In fact, experts say that the massive appetite for AI chips, driven by the infrastructure build-out, will cause a pricing apocalypse that will last a decade.
