Prices will continue to rise: in the first quarter of 2026 alone, memory manufacturers earned more than in all of 2025

Several memory manufacturers have reported record financial results. ADATA, for example, increased its profit 17-fold compared to last year, with its gross margin reaching 55.69%. Significant growth in revenue and margin was also recorded by Macronix, Apacer, Team Group, and Nanya Tech.

ADATA Chairman Chen Libai noted that the first quarter results are just the beginning, and the market is entering a “new normal” of prolonged scarcity. According to him, as production lines are reconfigured, the balance between DDR4 and DDR5 is gradually leveling out, but the shortage of high-speed HBM memory persists. In the near future, this will prevent the market from stabilizing, and prices and demand will continue to rise.

Additional pressure on the market is exerted by a structural shift in the industry: large DRAM manufacturers are focusing on high-performance solutions, while smaller companies are occupying the niche of older but still in-demand technologies.

A similar situation is observed in the NAND memory segment. The growing demand for SSDs and enterprise drives stimulates an increase in supplies, but even accumulated inventories do not cover market needs. The situation could be exacerbated by the anticipated 18-day strike at Samsung's facilities, which is projected to reduce DRAM and NAND output by up to 4%, intensifying pressure on global supply chains.