Prepare for a very long memory shortage. One of the leading suppliers, SK Hynix, says it's basically sold out of DRAM for the next three years.
Demand for memory chips is "expected to outpace supply through 2030," the Korean company said in its most recent earnings presentation, a dire projection that matches what SK Hynix’s chairman, Chey Tae-won, said in March.
In Wednesday's earnings call, executives elaborated on the situation, noting that its customers have already locked in more than 50% of SK Hynix’s manufacturing capacity for 2027 and 2028 through long-term agreements (LTAs), and customers are also in talks for more orders.
“The volume already secured under LTAs and the demand currently being discussed with customers taken together means that our DRAM and HBM [High Bandwidth Memory] volume for the next three years through 2029 is effectively sold out,” according to a translation.
"To date, we have signed LTAs with 14 key customers, including major global CSPs [cloud service providers]," SK Hynix added. "While LTAs typically operate on a five-year basis, we are proactively discussing extension of existing contract periods with some customers.”
According to Counterpoint Research, SK Hynix was the second-largest DRAM supplier in Q2, with a 25% share, behind Samsung.
SK Hynix says it’s accelerating investment to build more manufacturing capacity. But because the facilities can take years to construct, "We expect it to be difficult to fully meet customers' volume requirements in the near term," it says.
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Tight supplies signal that higher-than-usual prices for all kinds of consumer electronics could be the norm through the end of the decade. The graphics card market has been hit especially hard. Pricing for Nvidia’s higher-end RTX 5000 cards has been soaring all year, reportedly forcing the company to delay new GPU models.
The shortage has also led to a major drop in shipments for PCs and smartphones. However, SK Hynix says that, “While shipment volumes for PCs and mobile devices are expected to decrease due to cost burdens from rising memory prices and supply shortages, AI infrastructure demand growth is expected to more than offset this decline, sustaining growth in the overall memory market.”
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Michael Kan
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I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.
Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.