Join The Club
Is this the news we've all been waiting for? An end to the memory crisis? Possibly. No lesser an authority than the former president of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division says that memory prices could fall starting in the second half of next year thanks to a "surge" in manufacturing capacity in China.
Speaking at the National Academy of Engineering in Seoul, South Korea (via Wccftech), Kyung-Hyeon Kye said, "Chinese companies are aggressively expanding their production capacity." The result will be a "surge" in memory supply in the second half of 2027 or early 2028.
His argument seems to be that demand for memory chips could tail off if the AI industry doesn't start making money rather than just spending it. Ironically, this raises the prospect of the memory crisis being followed by the mother of all memory gluts.
As we've reported before, the major players in memory manufacturing outside of China are in the midst of increasing manufacturing capacity. China, by this account, is set to add dramatically to that capacity.
If the AI bubble goes pop and the huge added demand for memory chips suddenly goes with it, there will be an awful lot of memory capacity looking for customers.
Perhaps the AI bubble actually bursting is too pessimistic a scenario. But a significant scaling back of current investment plans from the industry seems plausible. And even that could see the supply-and-demand ratio shift pretty dramatically.
Even if this is all accurate, we still have a year or more to sit out before memory pricing begins to return to normal. So, there's a ways to go yet. But the prospect of vaguely sensible PC build costs being a thing again is still good news. Here's hoping.
1. Best DDR5 overall:
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
2. Best budget DDR5:
Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-5200
3. Best high-capacity DDR5:
G.Skill Trident Z5 64 GB DDR5-6400 CL32
4. Best DDR4 overall:
TEAM XTREEM 16 GB DDR4-3600
5. Best budget DDR4:
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB DDR4-3600
6. Best high-capacity DDR4:
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
