Samsung Increases DRAM and NAND Flash Memory Prices
As follows reports the Korean outlet Newdaily, the prices of DRAM and NAND Flash products were increased by Samsung according to a tighter supply brought about by lower production of older components and increased demand from large cloud enterprises.
Specific Price Increases by Product
Samsung maintains that the price adjustments for its DRAM and NAND product lines are indeed distinct. The memory products affected include LPDDR4X, LPDDR5, and LPDDR5X; while the NAND products affected include eMMC and UFC storage, i.e. eMMC.
- DRAM Products: Will see an increase of up to 30%.
- NAND Flash Products: Will see an increase of 5-10%.
Industry-Wide Trend Micron and SanDisk Follow Suit
This is not an isolated increase by Samsung. Other memory makers of prominence have also found it fitting to increase the prices of their goods.
- Micron has sent notification to its customers regarding a price rise of 20 to 30% while also not taking new orders.
- SanDisk announced a 10% price increase for NAND Flash products.
Reasons Behind the Price Increase
There are many market issues behind the present situation of a tight supply and the ensuing price increase. The industry is placed somewhat away from conventional technologies towards new ones to support emerging market segments of AI PCs and next-gen smartphones.
Production Legacy: Manufacturers are reducing the production of all those memory standards that could be considered "old," such as DDR4. This shift has propelled DDR4's price up to 50 percent, thus making DDR5 a much cheaper proposition for new PC builds.
The Fast-Soaring Demand for High Bandwidth Memory: There is a burgeoning requirement for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) in AI accelerators going out to the likes of NVIDIA and AMD. By favoring the production of HBM, memory makers are sucking supply from the consumer DRAM market.
The Demand Curve Is Up: New "AI PCs" are taking on LPDDR5/x standards, while demand from cloud infrastructure continues to rise, even as production on these new standards lags behind the ever-increasing demand.
Samsung's Market Position and Future Focus
Samsung now holds a considerable chunk of the memory market, with a 32.7% share of the DRAM field and 32.9% in NAND. Through the dynamic existing sector, it actively develops the next-gen LPDDR6 DRAM, with the first designs possibly coming out this year. In HBM products, it, moreover, strives to land the business of NVIDIA so as to do business in the promising AI hardware market.
