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DRAM Pricing Jumps 50%, Only 70% of Orders Getting Filled

“Chinese POWEV Enters DDR5 Market With Up to 64 GB UDIMM, SODIMM, and RDIMM Modules​

by AleksandarK Today, 09:03 Discuss (3 Comments)
The Chinese DRAM market has just gained another player with POWEV entering the DDR5 market. POWEV is a sub-brand of the Chinese company Jiahe Jinwei, which announced its entry into the DDR5 market almost half a decade ago but is delivering now when it is needed most. POWEV has introduced DDR5 DRAM in form factors like UDIMM, SODIMM, and RDIMM, capable of up to 64 GB capacity and available in either 4,800 MT/s or 5,600 MT/s speeds. At these speeds, modules have different latencies, so it is best to refer to the specification table below. Firstly, POWEV separates its DDR5 products into "pure domestic" memory modules and industrial memory modules. This likely refers to some modules being for PC DIY and OEM applications, while others are for servers and industrial applications.

Both categories come with non-ECC unbuffered memory modules, while RDIMMs carry registered ECC on their own DIMMs. Every module operates at a voltage of 1.2 V, with a specific pin count depending on the form factor. Interestingly, it is unclear what technology POWEV uses to manufacture these DDR5 modules and create these DIMMs, as the underlying technology is undefined. South Korean memory makers such as SK hynix and Samsung usually reveal which iteration of their 10 nm manufacturing technology is used for chip manufacturing, but that is not the case here. Jiahe Jinwei has entered mass production of DDR5 memory, but no underlying technology has been disclosed. For many, this doesn't matter as long as the performance meets JEDEC's DDR5 specifications.“
 

"AMD Radeon 9050 XT Leaks With 8 GB VRAM, More Stream Processors Than 9060​

by Cpt.Jank Today, 13:23 Discuss (5 Comments)
It seems as though AMD's Radeon RX 9000-series GPU family may finally be getting a true entry-level variant. According to a recent report by VideoCardz citing a source inside one of AMD's AIB partners, AMD will soon announce the AMD Radeon RX 9050 with 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a down-clocked version of AMD's Navi 44 GPU also used in the RX 9060. AMD has not yet revealed any details about the potential upcoming GPU, but there is a spec sheet divulging some of the details of the GPU, including a higher core count than the RX 9060. The card is expected to require a minimum 450 W PSU, suggesting reasonably low power draw, although likely not low enough to power off the PCIe slot alone.

The aforementioned spec sheet lists a Game clock of 1920 MHz and a Boost clock of up to 2600 MHz for the RX 9050, although, notably, the actual stream processor count is up from 1792 on the RX 9060 to 2048 on the 9050. It's entirely possible that we will see the GPU modding community come up with some way to hack a higher clock speed onto the 9050 via something like a 9060 XT vBIOS or some similar trick, but until then it's entirely likely that performance will be lower than the 9060, because the clock speeds are slower on the 9050—13% lower Boost clocks and 20% slower Game clocks. The reports also note that the specifications are preliminary, so it may be the case that some of the stream processors will be disabled to put the 9050 below the 9060. This non-finalized spec means we are also unlikely to see the Radeon RX 9050 launch anytime soon. The spec sheet also lists a PCIe 5 ×16 bus width and an HDMI 2.1b and dual DisplayPort 2.1a ports."
 

“SK Group Chairman Warns That Customers Will Use Less Memory Unless DRAM Supply Grows​

by AleksandarK Today, 04:43 Discuss (6 Comments)
Memory makers like Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron are currently striving to find the delicate balance between supplying the world with enough DRAM and expanding their production capacity by placing large new orders for the semiconductor fabs used to produce the memory. According to SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, who also oversees SK hynix, if companies like SK hynix do not increase their memory supply, customers will find ways to use less memory by optimizing their infrastructure and software for much lower utilization. At present, hyperscalers and AI accelerator makers such as AMD, NVIDIA, and others are securing as much memory as possible. This is part of AI data center expansion, which requires more GPU and CPU DRAM to support large training runs and maintain massive model inference, now reaching tens of trillions of parameters and needing hundreds of gigabytes of system memory to host a single model for just a few users.

This demand has created a supply chain issue where memory makers are selling all of their available DRAM months in advance but are hesitant to significantly expand manufacturing capacity, despite recognizing the increase in demand years ago. Memory makers are the first to notice rising demand, and their reluctance to increase manufacturing capacity is contributing to the current memory shortage. However, they are also wary of expanding production capacity as it takes years to build new memory fabs, just as projected demand is expected to stabilize. SK hynix has ordered about 20 Low-NA EUV machines from ASML for their expansion plans, which will also support future storage production once the tools are operational. However, all of this added capacity is still years away, and we will remain in a tight situation for a little while longer.“
 

"Global Semiconductor Materials Market Revenue Reaches Record $73.2 Billion in 2025​

Press Release by Nomad76 Today, 13:06 Discuss (0 Comments)
Global semiconductor materials market revenue increased 6.8% year-over-year to $73.2 billion in 2025, SEMI, reported today in its Materials Market Data Subscription (MMDS). Growth was supported by gains in both the wafer fab materials and packaging materials segments, reflecting higher process complexity, advanced-node demand, and continued investment in high-performance computing and high-bandwidth memory manufacturing.

Wafer fabrication materials revenue increased 5.4% to $45.8 billion. Lithography-related materials, including photomask, photoresist and ancillaries, along with wet chemicals, posted strong double-digit growth as higher process intensity and tighter lithography requirements continued to increase materials consumption."
 

“DDR5 Pricing Remains Stable, But SSDs Continue to Soar, Notes Framework​

by AleksandarK Today, 07:01 Discuss (4 Comments)
Framework, the maker of various modular laptops, has updated its blog post regarding the pricing and availability of consumer memory and storage configurations for its products. As the company collaborates with its supply chain to equip its laptops and mini-PCs with necessary components, it possesses inside knowledge of pricing trends that ultimately affect consumer purchases. According to the update, Framework notes that the price of DRAM has stabilized for now, and the latest DDR5 memory has remained relatively unchanged in recent weeks. This is noteworthy as memory is one of the most expensive PC components these days. This means that suppliers are offering stable prices without requiring long-term contracts, although high demand is keeping prices elevated compared to the same period last year.

However, the situation is different for NAND Flash, as Framework notes that SSD prices are facing significant challenges. The company mentions that its inventory of SSDs purchased in 2025 still exists, and they have been selling these SSDs at prices well below the current market value. Essentially, Framework honored the pricing it set when acquiring these SSDs, providing customers with some relief when purchasing storage expansion. However, this will not remain the case for much longer, as Framework expects the old inventory to be depleted as soon as next month. The company will then have to sell SSDs at current acquisition prices, which are several times more expensive than those acquired last year. Framework previously sourced SSDs from Western Digital but is now introducing new modules from Sandisk, which now owns Western Digital SSDs, as well as from ADATA, Phison, and possibly other suppliers.”
 
Last time flaship tier GPU prices reached 5k, we had an epic reset in a few months, this time is different.....sure...
 
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Pretty good article, makes it sound like there’s way more of this new hardware just getting put on the shelf waiting for power and facilities.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/where-are-all-the-data-centers/

Something doesn’t line up, and it’s exactly the kind of misalignment that happens in a bubble — when infrastructural reality disconnects from the financials. NVIDIA is making hundreds of billions of dollars and it’s unclear how much of it is from GPUs installed in operational data centers. It feels like Jensen Huang might have run the largest preorder campaign of all time.

This has massive downstream consequences. Sandisk, Samsung, SK Hynix, Broadcom, AMD, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and Amazon’s remaining performance obligations total [find] and are dependent on being *able* to sell gigawatts worth of computing gear or compute access. If data centers are not getting built in anything approaching a reasonable timeline, that makes the future of these companies only as viable as the construction projects themselves. Even if you truly believe Anthropic will be a $2 trillion company and a $200 billion customer of Google, the compute capacity has to exist to be bought, and it does not appear to be built or, in many cases, anywhere further than the earliest stages of construction.
 
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zerogg said:
Pretty good article, makes it sound like there’s way more of this new hardware just getting put on the shelf waiting for power and facilities.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/where-are-all-the-data-centers/
Click to expand...
People will rapidly pivot from, it was a fraud to amortize H100 gpu on more than 3 years too the fact that they have such good moneytisation potential for 4-5years old tech is a sign of an new issue (everyone that engaged on this on Hfboard knew very well compute chips age much better than mechanical harddrive, stagnation in that space has been there for a good time and that it will be hard for people to get their hands and running on the new stuff making the old one valuable for a very long time)...

Other one will be about their supposed impact on electricity price, the fact they do not actually use much juice or responsible for it will be now an issue about them. Now that demands at the LLM provider level not just at the hardware level is obvious and the revenues giants... need to pivot. Going from no-demand, overbuilding narrative to underbuilding will be an issue to the explosive demands and will stall revenues.

Has for :

And Nobody Has Built A 1GW Data Center Yet​


While true (and some like google seem like they will not try to do those until the space become more stable, has the time to build a 1gw power/cooling system take 3-5 years and the chip tech move fast during that time) Colossus-2 is not mentionned and getting close, the reason colossus-1 was available is said to be because colossus-2.0 is now online and being used and would reach GW soon and it is not far away already 500-700 mwh.

Rubin can be cooled with hot-water for example, which change the efficacy ratio map of your thermo-pomp completlelty, in hot place it can mean 2.5:1 cooling ratio going up to 5.x:1, changing the power math quite a bit.
 
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"Micron helps DRAM become the fastest ETF to hit $6.5 billion​




The Micron-led Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) just reached $6.5 billion in assets in 36 days, making it the fastest ETF to hit that mark and beating the early 2024 bitcoin ETF boom, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) took 43 days to reach $6.5 billion, while Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) took 51 days."

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/a...-fastest-etf-to-hit-65-billion-145645491.html
 
erek said:

"Micron helps DRAM become the fastest ETF to hit $6.5 billion​




The Micron-led Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) just reached $6.5 billion in assets in 36 days, making it the fastest ETF to hit that mark and beating the early 2024 bitcoin ETF boom, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) took 43 days to reach $6.5 billion, while Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) took 51 days."

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/a...-fastest-etf-to-hit-65-billion-145645491.html
Click to expand...

"While I can barely find two sticks of 16 GB to rub together, Micron unveils a 256 GB memory module destined for AI servers​


The module is apparently "capable of speeds up to 9,200 megatransfers per second."


In the midst of a memory supply crisis, I am definitely thankful for the 32 GB of DDR5 that came inside my prebuilt rig a few moons ago now. Sure, 16 GB of RAM is fine for most things I'd want to dive into, but the AI industry is playing a whole other ball game. Case in point, I am sweating just thinking about Micron's 256 GB DDR5 server module.

The Boise, Idaho-based memory manufacturer unveiled the tech on Tuesday. It's built on Micron's 1-gamma technology which, per the press release, "is capable of speeds up to 9,200 megatransfers per second (MT/s), greater than 40% faster than modules in volume production today."
Samples of the registered dual in-line memory modules (RDIMM) are being offered "to key server ecosystem enablers for platform validation" in order to ensure wide-ranging compatibility."

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/me...256-gb-memory-module-destined-for-ai-servers/
 

“ASUS Enters the Enthusiast Memory Market with ROG-branded DDR5 Kit​

by btarunr Today, 04:32 Discuss (4 Comments)
ASUS is entering the enthusiast PC memory market segment with its first ROG branded DDR5 memory kits. The company has launched these memory kits in China, and VideoCardz reports that BIWIN is the OEM behind the kit. The module comes with the distinct black+red ROG color scheme with gold accents commemorating 20 years of the ROG brand. ASUS recommends pairing the memory with its limited edition ROG Crosshair X870E 2006 20th Anniversary Edition motherboard.

The kit comes with a capacity of 48 GB, with two 24 GB DIMMs. These run at DDR5-6000 with tight timings of 26-36-36-76. The module includes both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP profiles for broad compatibility, but with a special "ROG Mode" profile extension that works on ASUS ROG Crosshair, ROG Maximus, and ROG Strix motherboards. The modules are crowned by an ARGB LED kit that's compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB controls through the company's Armoury Crate application. The special edition kit is priced at RMB ¥5,999, or USD $880. ASUS also announced the ROG-certified memory program, where popular consumer DDR5 memory vendors can offer ROG-themed (and badged) memory with ROG Mode profile extensions for special timings, and Aura Sync RGB support.“
 
LukeTbk said:
really impressive engine/game on the technical side, handle 8GB limitation very beautifully, even work well on an old 1060 6GB gpu.....
Click to expand...

Fingers crossed that the video card and memory deficit in the market right now will force game developers to be more efficient with their game engines and stop tossing out inefficient code. I'll probably be disappointed but I hope that I'm not. If people can't play their games due to lack of memory or new cards then their business is going to tank.
 
Ididar said:
Fingers crossed that the video card and memory deficit in the market right now will force game developers to be more efficient with their game engines and stop tossing out inefficient code. I
Click to expand...
2020 mid level system (ps5, xboxX) and mid level 2017 type of system (XboxS/Switch 2) as target, would have made that a forced reality already. This run on a 1060 6GB pretty well, but if your game run on a XboxS well enough, that kind of a must. Even if computer would have continued to grow, until a new generation of console take over the market, you still need to run well on 1060/2060 (XboxS) or at least 2070/6070 gpu (ps5/xboxX) system with very limited memory (16 for total system+gpu ram)
 

“Mobile DRAM Contract Prices Continue Rising in 2Q26, Pressuring Smartphone Production​

PRESS RELEASE by TheLostSwede Today, 08:10 Discuss (3 Comments)
“Surging mobile DRAM contract prices in 2Q26 continue to place even greater cost pressure on smartphone brands, according to TrendForce's latest memory market research. The two major Korean suppliers may have adopted different pricing strategies: Samsung Electronics is pursuing a more aggressive one-step pricing approach with sharper increases, while preliminary quotations from SK hynix indicate relatively milder hikes through a gradual price-raising strategy, with final pricing expected to be completed in late May. Overall, TrendForce estimates that the ASP of LPDDR4X solutions will jump by at least 70-75% QoQ for 2Q26, while the ASP of LPDDR5X solutions will see a QoQ surge of 78-83%.

Notably, several consecutive quarters of steep price increases have significantly intensified cost burdens for smartphone vendors. Under such conditions, brands are expected not only to reduce total smartphone production in 2026, but may also struggle to fulfill the bit procurement volumes stipulated in the LTAs (or MoUs) arranged with suppliers at the end of last year.”
 
expect even higher prices,

“Samsung Starts Shutting Down Chip Production Lines Ahead of 18-Day Worker Strike​

by AleksandarK Today, 12:32 Discuss (0 Comments)
Samsung is gradually winding down its factory production as an 18-day strike looms over the company facilities. According to South Korean news outlets, Samsung is slowing its manufacturing operations to enter what is referred to as emergency management mode, which essentially limits production capacity. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, about 43,286 factory workers have joined the picket line for the strike, which is more than half of the entire semiconductor division (DS unit) labor force. As factories face worker shortages, production lines are gradually stalling. In emergency mode, Samsung will restrict the number of new wafers introduced into the production process, which is a long and demanding procedure that typically runs 24/7. Interestingly, the factory can still operate at minimum production capacity thanks to the extensive automation involved, but operating machines still requires human involvement.

TrendForce estimates that about 3-4% of the world's global DRAM supply could be disrupted, along with about 3% of the world's NAND Flash supply. At a time when DRAM and NAND Flash shortages are at their peak, this will exacerbate the global supply chain situation. The targeted production lines in the strike are for HBM, (LP)DDR5, and some custom logic production. If Samsung's customers perceive uncertainty from the production capacity stall, many could shift to competitors like SK hynix or Micron. With more than half of the workforce absent, there will not be enough factory workers to keep production lines running, and output will drop significantly.“
 

“Samsung meeting transcripts show memory workers offered incredible 607% bonus worth $477,000, while logic chip staff get as little as 50% — union says misbalance 'creates a retention crisis the company cannot afford'​


A huge pay gap.


Internal Samsung wage negotiation transcripts obtained by Reuters show the company proposed bonuses of 607% of annual salary for its memory chip division in March, while offering workers in its loss-making foundry and System LSI businesses between 50% and 100%. The documents, part of hundreds of pages of meeting minutes, offer a detailed look at the internal fractures driving Samsung toward what would be the largest strike in its history, scheduled to begin on Thursday.”

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...show-memory-workers-offered-607-percent-bonus
 
memory prices could stabilize by H2 next year
& start decreasing by 2028 H1
 
Marees said:
memory prices could stabilize by H2 next year
& start decreasing by 2028 H1
Click to expand...
Then you have to deal with prices going down to normal ish levels and all the normal people buying ram after years of nothing so it will be even LONGER after that
 
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