With capacity shifting to high-margin HBM for AI data centers, traditional DRAM supply is collapsing, pushing enterprise IT costs sharply higher and eroding procurement leverage.
Samsung Electronics warned that memory chip shortages will drive price increases across the electronics industry in 2026, with the world’s largest memory manufacturer acknowledging that even its vast production capacity cannot insulate its own products from the surge, a signal that enterprise IT buyers face unavoidable cost increases regardless of vendor choice.
Wonjin Lee, president and head of global marketing at Samsung, told Bloomberg in an interview that the company expects memory chip shortages to affect pricing industry-wide. “In 2026, there’s going to be issues around semiconductor supplies, and it’s going to affect everyone, not just Samsung,” Lee said. “I think it’s an industry-wide reality that we’re going to see some supply issues.”
Samsung’s inability to insulate its own product lines from price pressures represents a shift in market dynamics, according to Manish Rawat, semiconductor analyst at TechInsights. “Memory manufacturers once functioned as shock absorbers for the tech ecosystem, using scale, inventory discipline, and long-term contracts to provide pricing and supply predictability,” Rawat said. “Samsung’s inability to cushion volatility despite its unmatched capacity indicates a market in disequilibrium.”
AI infrastructure drains conventional memory supply
The disequilibrium stems from manufacturers’ reallocation of production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers. HBM commands higher margins than conventional DRAM, driving Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron to shift capacity away from traditional enterprise and consumer memory products.
“Demand for memory is strong, driven by ongoing AI investments,” said Kanishka Chauhan, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “High Bandwidth Memory, which is used in AI applications, demands stronger pricing compared to traditional and legacy memory, leading vendors to allocate more production capacity to HBM.”
HBM production for AI accelerators consumes approximately three times the wafer capacity of standard DRAM per gigabyte, according to a Micron executive, forcing memory makers to reallocate production away from consumer and enterprise products. As a result, the supply of both traditional and legacy DRAM has decreased for industrial and PC customers, particularly those with lower volume requirements, Chauhan said.
SK Hynix reported during its October earnings call that its HBM, DRAM, and NAND capacity is “essentially sold out” for 2026, while Micron recently exited the consumer memory market entirely to focus on enterprise and AI customers.
Enterprise hardware costs surge
The supply constraints have translated directly into sharp price increases across enterprise hardware. Samsung raised prices for 32GB DDR5 modules to $239 from $149 in September, a 60% increase, while contract pricing for DDR5 has surged more than 100%, reaching $19.50 per unit compared to around $7 earlier in 2025.
DRAM prices have already risen approximately 50% year to date and are expected to climb another 30% in Q4 2025, followed by an additional 20% in early 2026, according to Counterpoint Research. The firm projected that DDR5 64GB RDIMM modules, widely used in enterprise data centers, could cost twice as much by the end of 2026 as they did in early 2025.
Gartner forecast DRAM prices to increase by 47% in 2026 due to significant undersupply in both traditional and legacy DRAM markets, Chauhan said.
Procurement leverage shifts to hyperscalers
The pricing pressures and supply constraints are reshaping the power dynamics in enterprise procurement. For enterprise procurement, supplier size no longer guarantees stability. “As supply becomes more contested in 2026, procurement leverage will hinge less on volume and more on strategic alignment,” Rawat said.
Hyperscale cloud providers secure supply through long-term commitments, capacity reservations, and direct fab investments, obtaining lower costs and assured availability. Mid-market firms rely on shorter contracts and spot sourcing, competing for residual capacity after large buyers claim priority supply.
“This imbalance creates a dual constraint for the mid-market: higher input costs and longer delivery timelines,” Rawat said. “Both directly limit their ability to scale infrastructure, deploy new workloads, or innovate at pace.”
Samsung has announced plans to build a new memory production line at its Pyeongtaek, South Korea plant, but mass production will not begin until 2028.
For enterprises, Samsung’s warning indicates that memory constraints will affect IT procurement strategies in 2026 and beyond, requiring organizations to account for supply availability and cost volatility in hardware planning. Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
