The global memory chip market is currently experiencing an unprecedented wave of price increases, with industry insiders widely believing that this "super bull market" cycle may continue until the first half of 2027.

On January 8, 2026, Samsung Electronics released preliminary results showing that its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 reached 20 trillion Korean won (approximately $13.82 billion), a year-on-year increase of 208%, setting a record for the companys highest quarterly profit. Revenue for the same period rose 23% year-on-year to 93 trillion Korean won, surpassing the 80 trillion Korean won mark for two consecutive quarters.

Behind Samsungs stellar performance are supply constraints and a surge in demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI), which have pushed up the prices of traditional memory chips. The significant increase in demand for high-performance memory chips during AI model training and operation has put continuous pressure on the global supply chain. Industry forecasts indicate that memory prices rose by about 40% to 50% in the fourth quarter of 2025; they are expected to increase by another 40% to 50% in the first quarter of 2026 and by approximately 20% in the second quarter.

There is a clear divergence in price increases across different chip specifications. DDR4 memory contract prices are expected to surge by about 90% in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing even the increase for DDR5. This is mainly due to the three major manufacturers shifting their main production capacity to high-end products such as DDR5, LPDDR, and HBM, leading to a sharp drop in DDR4 capacity. Samsung originally planned to discontinue DDR4 production by the end of 2025, but due to market supply-demand imbalances, this has been delayed to the end of 2026.