Up over 300%! Memory stick prices have surged! Memory sticks bought last year are now several times more expensive.

The computer memory stick you bought last year

Now the same item costs several times more

Since this year

Global storage chip prices have kept climbing

From September last year to today

Prices of some memory modules have already risen by more than 300%

AI infrastructure brings long-term structural demand

It is changing the balance of supply and demand in the storage market

Memory prices keep rising

Hard drive prices rise with them

With storage product prices staying high, what impact does it have on consumers?

In Futian’s Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen—often hailed as “China’s first electronics street”—Xu Shaoan, a hardcore gaming enthusiast, has recently been preparing to play a AAA game and planned to upgrade his computer. When he checked, he found that a 32GB DDR5 memory kit for the same model is now nearly 4,000 yuan, which is 3 to 4 times higher than last year. So he decided to lower his configuration, switching to 24GB, and will upgrade later when prices drop.

A CCTV Finance reporter’s investigation found that besides memory prices steadily rising, hard drive prices are also climbing. Taking a 1TB solid-state drive as an example, it is now already over 900 yuan. Many PC builders said that part prices and finished-machine prices are currently at high levels, causing many customers to choose to wait and see.

The reporter’s statistics show that compared with last year, price increases for mainstream storage products have all exceeded 100%.

Among them:

1TB solid-state drive: last year 410 yuan, now 950 yuan, up 132%;

16G DDR5 memory: last year 450 yuan, now 1,800 yuan, up 300%;

32G DDR5 memory: last year 900 yuan, now 3,800 yuan, up 322%.

Shipping twice a day now up to six times

Storage chip merchants race to stock up

A shortage of storage chips on the consumer side is now feeding through to the production side.

Many domestic storage companies are accelerating capacity planning. Shen Jiaqi, the person in charge of Guangdong Shenzhen Jinsheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., told the reporter that the company mainly produces memory modules, solid-state drives, and other storage products. He said that since this year, the customer stock-up rhythm has clearly changed: from “small steps, fast running—once a month stocking” last year to preparing enough inventory for a quarter or even half a year in advance, aiming to lock in capacity and prices. To cope with the surge in orders, their factories adjusted from a single shift system to a two-shift rotation, extending production time to 12:00 AM at night.

Shen Jiaqi told the reporter that originally all shipments were manual. To meet fast delivery and the continued growth in order volume, the factory carried out intelligent upgrades, purchasing three automated packaging machines. “Shipment frequency changed from once in the morning and once in the afternoon each day, to now at least three times in the morning and three times in the afternoon every day.”

AI “eats up” massive storage

Storage companies accelerate capacity planning

With demand for AI servers and data centers continuing to heat up, orders for enterprise storage products have grown quickly. Many domestic storage companies are also accelerating their capacity planning. A storage company executive in Shenzhen, Guangdong, told the reporter that their company has a module manufacturing plant in Huizhou. Starting from the end of last year, they launched a capacity expansion plan, focusing on product lines such as enterprise memory modules to build capacity.

Industry insiders say that the core contradiction in the global storage industry is still severe supply shortages. As AI data centers keep pulling demand, combined with factors such as contract manufacturers cutting production, the storage chips industry will still maintain high momentum throughout the year. Xie Ming, deputy secretary-general of the Shenzhen Electronic Chamber of Commerce, said that now AI demand has surged, directly leading original equipment manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to cut production and even stop production of some low-end storage chips. The price of wafers has continued to rise.

Global storage market

May see a structurally high-invigoration period

Industry insiders say that in the past, storage chips were long regarded as strong-cycle products, with prices swinging significantly with inventory and demand cycles. This round of price increases comes from long-term structural demand brought by AI infrastructure construction. The market no longer views the current upcycle as just a normal cyclical rebound; instead, it believes the storage industry may enter a longer period of structural high prosperity than before.

According to the latest estimates from a research institution under the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), as the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer, Samsung Electronics is expected to release second-quarter operating profit this Tuesday. It is as high as 86 trillion won, up about 18 times year over year, and it will be the third consecutive quarter to set a record—according to the estimate.

IDC, an international data organization, experts point out that the core driving force behind this round of price hikes is not a surge in end-market demand, but the “siphon effect” of AI chips on storage capacity. “One HBM can consume the wafer area of regular DRAM by 2 to 3 times the same capacity. Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron Technology are all crazily expanding HBM capacity—so that will push out capacity for traditional DRAM and NAND.”

A shortage-driven upcycle not only reshapes the industry’s fundamentals, but also lifts the stock prices of storage chip makers in the capital market sharply. Since this year, major players such as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron Technology have all seen substantial stock price gains, with market caps all breaking above the trillion-dollar mark. Experts further note that this round of market is not just a simple cyclical price increase. It is a long-term structural shift caused by AI, and the rising cycle may continue through 2028.

However, there are disagreements in the market about the sustainability of these price hikes:

A recent research report from JPMorgan Chase states that AI storage’s share in cloud service providers’ capital expenditures lacks long-term sustainability. JPMorgan’s data shows that the share of AI storage in cloud vendors’ capital expenditures is rising rapidly, and is expected to reach 52% this year, with a further potential to exceed 70% next year.

IDC experts analyze that in the short term, the high valuations for storage are supported by HBM supply-demand gaps, so there is some risk of correction. But after 2027, if the pace of AI commercialization cannot keep up with the schedule of capacity release, the storage sector will face a real stress test.

Storage chip prices keep rising

Actually, the core reasons are just two

AI + supply contraction

Right now, would you choose to install with a real need,

or wait and see for price drops?

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Keywords:

                                                            memory modules