Samsung, SK Hynix Warn of Record Memory Supply Squeeze as AI Demand Surges

Samsung and SK Hynix have flagged a record supply squeeze in the memory chip market, driven by soaring AI demand. During Samsung's first-quarter earnings call on Thursday, the company reported its order fulfilment rate had plunged to a "record low," with customers already pre-booking memory capacity for 2027. Available supply is far short of demand, and production-ready capacity for next-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM4) is fully booked. SK Hynix's first-quarter revenue soared nearly 200% year on year. CFO Kim Woo-hyun noted that demand from major customers is increasing across HBM, DRAM, and enterprise SSDs, while suppliers struggle to increase output. He added that the current rising price cycle is expected to last longer than past industry cycles.