Samsung, which manufactures and supplies roughly a third of the world’s memory chips, warned that the ongoing shortage of RAM will not only persist into next year but intensify in 2027, with tight supply conditions lasting until at least 2028. The forecast came during Samsung’s second-quarter earnings call, one of the most closely watched signals in the global chip market.
Samsung said frontier AI labs, desperate to secure access to memory infrastructure, have been “sharing their medium- to long-term demand forecasts” directly with the Korean tech giant to guarantee future supply. That high demand allows Samsung to prioritize customers willing to sign long-term contracts, reshaping how the memory market allocates scarce capacity.
The multi-year visibility gives Samsung confidence to install equipment and ramp up production without fearing that demand will dry up, helping the company avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that have historically plagued the memory industry, where prices have swung wildly between shortages and gluts.
The shortage has been a double-edged sword for Samsung. Sales at its semiconductor unit hit an all-time high in the second quarter, but profitability in its smartphone and TV divisions shrank as higher-priced chips drove up component costs. Samsung has started passing some of those costs to consumers by increasing prices on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets, and demand for those devices has dropped as a result.
The supply crunch, informally dubbed “RAMaggedon,” has also hit Apple, Samsung’s archrival. Apple raised prices on MacBooks, Macs and iPads last month, and warned on its latest earnings call that revenue growth for the upcoming quarter is projected to slow to between 9% and 11% year over year, down from a recent 16% quarterly growth rate.
With memory manufacturers shifting production capacity toward AI data centers and away from consumer electronics, consumers are facing a new reality of higher device prices. Nvidia is expected to raise its consumer graphics card prices by 20% to 30%, which may further drive up prices of gaming devices, desktop computers, consoles and laptops.
Industry analysts say the comments confirm that AI-driven demand for memory will shape hardware pricing well into 2028, affecting both enterprise AI buildouts and everyday consumer electronics. Samsung’s ability to lock in long-term contracts with AI labs also signals that the balance of power in the chip market has shifted toward suppliers able to guarantee capacity, a dynamic that is now visible in retail prices across the industry.
Sources: TechCrunch, Samsung Newsroom.
Author: Technology Desk
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