Samsung Raises the Memory Chip Prices by 60% as Demand Surges

Samsung has long been the world’s biggest memory-chip maker, supplying Nvidia, OpenAI, and basically every other major player. Over the past few weeks, industry sources have been warning that a price hike was coming. And it looks like that moment just arrived.

AI servers are gobbling up memory chips, and Samsung is cashing in

Reuters reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that Samsung skipped its usual October pricing update and resurfaced in November with significantly higher numbers. The reason’s pretty straightforward. AI data centers are chewing through supply faster than manufacturers can crank it out.

Server-grade DDR5 modules are seeing the biggest jumps. Prices for Samsung’s 32GB DDR5 chips jumped from $149 in September to $239 in November, according to semiconductor distributor Fusion Worldwide. Other configurations climbed too. For instance, 16GB and 128GB DDR5 modules are now roughly 50% more expensive, while the 64GB and 96GB versions are up more than 30%.

Companies racing to expand their server fleets and AI infrastructure are finding it harder than ever to secure enough memory, the report adds. In some cases, the scramble has turned into outright panic-buying. The squeeze is also rippling into other product categories, pushing up component costs for smartphones and PCs.

Samsung hasn’t said anything publicly about the pricing surge, but the dynamic clearly tilts in the company’s favor. Even though Samsung has been slower than some competitors in ramping up advanced AI chips, the tight DDR5 supply gives it much stronger pricing power over SK Hynix and Micron. TrendForce expects Samsung’s contract prices to climb another 40% to 50% this quarter.