Shares of major manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron rose sharply on Monday, with prices in some segments more than doubling since February last year. Demand for AI infrastructure is outstripping supply.
The market is responding to warnings from top executives. Samsung co-CEO TM Roh describes the shortage as “unprecedented.” His colleagues at other manufacturers warn that the constraints could last for months, if not years. The picture is clear: the race to build AI infrastructure is consuming virtually all available production capacity.
Micron shares rose more than 2 percent on Monday. In South Korea, SK Hynix and Samsung closed with gains of nearly 3 and 7.5 percent. Players such as Western Digital, Applied Digital, and Seagate also rose more than 3 percent. SanDisk posted an increase of about 1.5 percent.
Capacity shifts to AI servers
There is a clear reason for the shortage. Memory chip manufacturers are shifting their production capacity to high-bandwidth memory for AI servers. This leaves less for other sectors. Flash chips for USB drives and smartphones, for example, are becoming scarce.
The price increases are significant. Market researcher TrendForce reports that prices in some segments have more than doubled since February last year. A standard 32GB DDR5 memory package cost around €100 in mid-2025, but has since risen to €400.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra expects memory markets to remain tight until after 2026. That prediction underscores the seriousness of the situation. Micron’s stock jumped a whopping 240 percent last year, far outpacing the 42 percent gain of the benchmark chip index.
Samsung doubled in value last year, while SK Hynix rose nearly fourfold. These price increases reflect investors’ confidence that the rally will continue. Traders are betting on continued price increases, driven by demand for AI capacity.
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