AI Economy: Big Tech players and hyperscalers are buying up virtually every memory chip they can secure, and even that isn't enough to satisfy demand driven by AI. The conversation has shifted from short-term shortages to a more structural question: how long it will take manufacturers to catch up. The answer, increasingly, looks like years.
A recent report from Nikkei Asia yet again highlights how tight the market has become. It centers on the ongoing memory shortage, which is expected to persist until chipmakers have both the capacity and the facilities to meet demand for AI-focused components from hyperscale customers.
The industry's largest players, including South Korean giants Samsung and SK Hynix, alongside US firm Micron, are ramping up investment in new fabs. Even so, analysts estimate that by the end of 2027, supply will meet only about 60% of demand for high-bandwidth memory products.
SK Hynix recently opened a new fabrication plant in Cheongju, but broader capacity expansions across foundries and integrated device manufacturers are not expected to come online until 2027 or 2028. According to Nikkei, manufacturers would need to increase annual output by roughly 12% over the next two years to close the gap. Research from Counterpoint suggests they will fall well short, projecting growth closer to 7.5%.
The longer view is even more sobering. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won recently said he expects the shortage to last through 2030. In the meantime, the entire sector has pivoted toward high-bandwidth memory, which is critical for AI accelerators and advanced GPU workloads.
SK Hynix alone holds about 32% of the global DRAM market and more than half of the HBM segment.
That focus leaves less room for traditional consumer memory. Chips used in PCs and mobile devices are no longer the priority, and in some cases, they are being sidelined altogether. Micron famously shut down its Crucial brand for good, while other vendors are simply trying to squeeze more money out of their customers as long as the AI craze lasts.
There are early signs of downstream effects. Some system integrators and OEMs are beginning to ship consumer hardware with reduced performance targets, reflecting tighter component availability. The message from hardware makers, implicitly or not, is that constrained tradeoffs are part of the current moment and we should just be happy for the effort in these trying times.