Memory prices are called into question with US-based lawsuit

Recent price fluctuations in the memory market can no longer viewed as a temporary onslaught. Reports indicate industry leaders believe elevated memory pricing may become the norm throughout the remainder of the decade.  

These warnings come as growing demand for AI necessitating advanced DRAM for HBM products is fundamentally changing production priorities. The result is increased competition in an allocation-only market that favors hyperscalers and AI organizations.  

Manufacturers are also facing operational challenges as concerns surrounding critical manufacturing materials remain prone to geopolitical shocks and inflation. The latest raw material to come up as at risk for short supply is high-purity carbon dioxide (CO₂).  

Simultaneously, legal scrutiny over alleged DRAM suppression is sparking renewed interest in market shocks from the past.

Rising memory prices and material shortages reshape the market

Lenovo’s ISC 2026 presentation in Germany put numbers to the pressures many buyers have been feeling for months and stoked fears that relief is only visible at a distance. Notably, the company’s DRAM and NAND pricing scale places current levels as a floor rather than a peak. Notably, the outlook already factors in new capacity expected to come online around 2028, meaning Lenovo doesn’t foresee prices returning to early 2025 levels anytime soon.  

It isn’t the only organization with this view. SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won has warned of supply-demand tightness persisting through 2030 even as his company targets doubled wafer capacity by that year and tripled capacity by 2034.  

Ultimately, the story is that HBM and advanced DRAM are being allocated to hyperscaler and AI infrastructure buyers faster than fabs can expand output thanks to exponentially higher memory requirements than other sectors. That demand and subsequent reallocation is keeping memory prices elevated well past the point where previous shortages would have eased.  

Though this trend is no longer novel halfway through 2026, material scarcity continues to compound the pressure on numerous fronts. The latest area of concern is South Korea’s inventory of high-purity CO₂, which is used in critical semiconductor production processes.

Inventory levels of the essential industrial gas have reportedly fallen below one month of combined manufacturer and supplier stock. Per TrendForce, both sides typically maintain two weeks of inventory as a buffer. A report from The Elec estimates that Samsung consumes roughly 1,800-2,000 metric tons of high-purity CO₂ each month and SK Hynix uses roughly 600-700 metric tons.  

Fortunately, production has not yet been disrupted by the shrinking buffer, but procurement teams at both firms are reportedly paying more for supply that’s getting harder to secure at any price. The bottleneck, unsurprisingly, traces upstream to CO₂ feedstock, a byproduct of oil refining currently squeezed by volatility in the Middle East. Should supply tighten further as a result of continued conflict, both Samsung and SK Hynix could face operational pressure that threatens production.  

Buyers must recognize that these trends, playing out in tandem, have a compounding effect on both semiconductor availability and pricing. Mounting an effective response demands supply chain strategies built on broad supplier networks and real-time visibility to reduce single-region and single-supplier dependencies.  

Sourceability helps customers improve supply chain resilience through a vetted network of global suppliers and franchise partners to help reduce exposure to market shifts. Moreover, our Datalynq market intelligence platform gives chip buyers much-needed visibility into tomorrow’s trends and BOM risks that threaten continuity.  

DRAM manufacturers face renewed legal scrutiny

A class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is testing whether the memory market's current pricing environment reflects supply-demand fundamentals or coordinated restriction. The suit, brought on behalf of 17 U.S. consumers, names Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, which together account for more than 90% of global DRAM sales.  

It alleges the trio used the recent prioritization of HBM production for AI customers as cover to deliberately constrain commodity DRAM supply and has been doing so since 2022. Citing a roughly 700% increase in DRAM pricing over four years as evidence, the lawsuit seeks both damages and an injunction against further coordinated supply restriction.  

Drawing on precedent, the plaintiffs point to the Department of Justice’s 2005 DRAM price-fixing case, in which Samsung and SK Hynix plead guilty to pricing collusion between 1998 and 2002. The memory makers paid $300 million and $185 million in fines, respectively.  

As Wccftech notes, the 2005 case isn’t a direct comparison given that the coordinated supply suppression happened while there was adequate capacity. Today’s market is far different thanks to booming AI demand, which has placed unprecedented pressure on fab capacity. Moreover, all three companies have recently committed to significant capacity expansion through new fabs and production lines, despite their long time horizons.  

Whether a judge sees these differences as meaningful or views capacity reallocation toward HBM as functionally equivalent to withholding supply will shape how regulators and litigants approach AI-driven allocation decisions moving forward.  

For buyers, the case reiterates the legal and regulatory influence is an oft-underweighted risk factor in supply chain planning. Litigation outcomes and government intercessions can both move pricing independently of the usual supply-demand balance, which itself is stretched thin.

Layered atop the capacity and material bottlenecks already afflicting the market, it’s a further sign that today’s memory environment isn’t just cycling through a temporary phase. Buyers must now adapt to a new set of rules and ensure their procurement strategies account for disruption on myriad fronts through diversification, sourcing intelligence, and strong supplier relationships.