Reports indicate that Samsung Electronics will raise DRAM prices by up to 20% in the third quarter.
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Samsung plans to raise DRAM prices by 20% in the third quarter and has already notified some customers verbally.
According to Mars Finance, on July 4th, news broke yesterday that Samsung Electronics plans to raise the average selling price of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) by 20% in the third quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter. An executive from a consumer electronics manufacturer confirmed, "This is true." They stated that Samsung had been in talks with them in June and they had received verbal notification of the DRAM price increase. "The significant price increase in upstream components will be passed on to the final product price, which will curb some market demand. However, the overall price of consumer electronics products is not high now, so even with the price increase, it is not expected to significantly affect consumer purchasing decisions." Another industry veteran confirmed that the news of Samsung's planned 20% DRAM price increase in the third quarter is true, and Samsung has already notified some customers of the verbal price quote.
Samsung drove a 20% quarter-on-quarter increase in the average selling price of DRAM in Q3.
According to Mars Finance, on July 3rd, South Korean media ZDNET reported that Samsung Electronics is in talks with customers to raise its third-quarter DRAM ASP by up to approximately 20% compared to the previous quarter. DRAM prices have been rising sharply, driven by aggressive AI infrastructure investments from major global technology companies. This news may trigger a strong rebound in Samsung and SK Hynix shares. As of press time, SK Hynix was up over 9%, and Samsung was up over 8%.
Samsung Electronics' operating profit this year is expected to exceed the cumulative total of the past 40 years, and the second quarter may set a new record for the highest operating profit in the history of global technology companies.
According to Mars Finance, on July 6th, Kim Yong-kwan, head of the semiconductor business's operational strategy at Samsung Electronics, released optimistic signals at a departmental meeting on July 3rd, stating that this year's operating profit will meet market expectations, and adding that "the cumulative profit over the past 40 years of the semiconductor business is less than this year's profit alone." The market currently expects Samsung Electronics' full-year operating profit for 2026 to be approximately 300 trillion won, with a consensus expectation of 84.6 trillion won for the second quarter—if realized, this would surpass Nvidia's record of $53.536 billion in the first quarter of this year, setting a new record for the highest single-quarter operating profit for a global technology company. Kim Yong-kwan also emphasized that the company continues to invest over 40 trillion won in capital expenditure annually and plans to further expand its investment scale to cope with the continued expansion of demand for AI semiconductors. The combined performance of South Korea's two semiconductor giants is equally remarkable. SK Hynix's second-quarter operating profit is expected to be around 64.4 trillion won, bringing the combined total for both companies to approximately 149 trillion won, approaching 150 trillion won. However, some market analysts point out that the storage sector's stock prices have recently shown signs of peaking and declining. Whether they can rise further depends on whether the earnings significantly exceed expectations. The size and duration of long-term supply contracts and the price trend of storage in the second half of the year will be key variables to watch. Furthermore, SK Hynix's ADRs will be listed on July 10th. HSBC has raised its target price from 2.9 million won to 4 million won, believing that the ADR listing will improve accessibility for global investors and could bring a valuation premium of approximately 20%. JPMorgan Chase points out that the second-quarter earnings season will be a watershed moment for reassessing the storage cycle.
Hong Kong-listed technology stocks weakened after the market opened, influenced by market news regarding Samsung Electronics.
According to Odaily Odaily, some Hong Kong-listed technology stocks weakened after the market opened, possibly influenced by market news that Samsung Electronics plans to raise DRAM product prices by about 20% in the third quarter. Sunny Optical Technology fell by more than 4%, and Lenovo Group fell by 3.4%.
Institutions: Memory prices were supported by AI servers in the third quarter, but increasing pressure on the consumer side caused the price increase to slow down.
Mars Finance reported on July 3rd that, according to TrendForce's latest memory price survey, the overall DRAM market will remain extremely tight in the third quarter of 2026. However, due to downward revisions in consumer application demand and the high base effect, contract price increases will be limited, with a projected quarter-on-quarter increase of 13-18%. NAND Flash demand will still be primarily supported by AI inference and large-scale data center construction. However, as contract prices have reached historical highs, consumer customers' price tolerance has reached its limit amid slowing demand. Overall NAND Flash contract prices are estimated to increase by 10-15% quarter-on-quarter, a significantly smaller increase than in previous quarters. (Wide Angle Observation)
Samsung released its Q2 earnings forecast: operating profit increased by over 1800% year-on-year, with single-quarter profit exceeding the total of the previous three years.
BlockBeats reported on July 7th that global semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics released extremely strong preliminary financial results for the second quarter. Data shows that, driven by the powerful wave of artificial intelligence (AI), the world's largest memory chip manufacturer is experiencing its most prosperous profit cycle in history. According to the financial report, Samsung's operating profit in the second quarter surged 1810.2% year-on-year, reaching 89.4 trillion won (approximately US$58 billion). This figure not only far exceeded the market's previous expectation of 84.2 trillion won, but also remarkably surpassed the company's total profit for the three years from 2023 to 2025. At the same time, the company's revenue also increased by 129% year-on-year, reaching 171 trillion won. Following Samsung Electronics' earnings forecast, SanDisk (SNDK.O) and Micron Technology (MU.O) saw their US-listed shares decline in after-hours trading. Samsung's explosive performance directly benefits from the near-"thirsty" orders for high-performance memory chips from AI data centers. Industry giants like Nvidia and OpenAI have repeatedly stated publicly that the shortage of memory chips has become a core bottleneck for current AI development. Because major manufacturers prioritize the production capacity of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is designed specifically for AI and offers higher profits, this has conversely squeezed the conventional memory space needed for smartphones, PCs, and enterprise servers. This "capacity squeeze" effect has led to a severe shortage in the global memory market. HSBC data shows that in the second quarter of 2026, the average selling price of DRAM increased by more than 40% compared to the previous quarter, and NAND prices increased by more than 50%; Citi Research gives even higher estimates, at 44% and 53% respectively. Analysts generally believe that this "seller's market" will continue at least until 2027, giving Samsung and its long-time rivals SK Hynix and Micron Technology extremely strong pricing power.