RAM prices now expected to jump another 40% to 50% as a lawsuit accuses Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of turning scarcit…
Rohan Paul Twitter · Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai) · 2026-06-30
A California antitrust lawsuit accuses Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of coordinating a shift toward high-margin HBM for AI servers while restricting consumer DRAM supply, with analysts forecasting 40-50% RAM price increases in Q3 2026 and no relief until 2028.
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Extraction
Topics: dram-pricingmemory-marketantitrusthbmai-hardware-costs
Claims
- RAM prices are forecast to rise 40-50% in Q3 2026 and 30-40% in Q4 2026, with no relief expected before 2028, according to memory consultant Ethan Tan via Jefferies Research.
- Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron collectively control approximately 90% of global DRAM and allegedly coordinated a capacity shift toward HBM while constraining DDR3 and DDR4 supply.
- HBM carries higher margins than consumer DRAM, giving manufacturers an economic incentive to shift capacity toward AI server memory at the expense of consumer devices.
- Prior DRAM price-fixing cases resulted in Samsung paying $300M and SK Hynix paying $185M in penalties, lending historical credibility to the current allegations.
- Nvidia GPU memory per rack has scaled from 80GB (H100) to 288GB (GB300 Blackwell Ultra), creating structural demand pressure that makes AI servers dominant buyers.
Key quotes
prices may rise 40% to 50% in Q3-26, then 30% to 40% in Q4-26, with relief unlikely before 2028
The California complaint says the 3 firms control about 90% of global DRAM and coordinated a move toward HBM while choking DDR3 and DDR4 supply.
AI servers pay premium prices for capacity and bandwidth that make everyday device memory less attractive