Memory shortage to persist until 2030! Next year's capacity fully sold out: Giants lock in capacity with five-year long-term contracts.

According to reports, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, the three major memory manufacturers, have informed customers that their entire 2027 DRAM and HBM production capacity has been fully booked by tech giants and AI-related companies.

With the 2027 production quota already sold out and no additional capacity planned, major tech giants and AI companies have signed long-term supply agreements (LTAs) spanning five years, securing memory capacity that has not yet been produced. Based on the duration of these agreements, the memory shortage may extend into 2030 or even longer.

Industry insiders have revealed that some manufacturers may still be unaware that July and August are the critical period for supply allocation. "No one is publicizing this, for fear that too many players will come in and end up getting a smaller share."

NAND flash is also facing tremendous pressure from surging demand. Although the NAND market has a larger number of suppliers and capacity has not yet been fully carved up, the price increase trend is already quite evident. Taking the WD SN7100 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD as an example, its price has surged from approximately $110 in January this year to $189, a jump of as much as 52%.

In less than half a year, the price of the same SSD has risen by nearly half, directly reflecting the trend of the storage price surge spreading from DRAM to NAND.

The impact of skyrocketing storage costs on consumer electronics has already begun to show. Sony's PlayStation console prices have been raised by more than one-third. Apple has also hinted that due to the sharp increase in memory procurement costs, the next-generation iPhone 18 Pro will see significant price increases.

For consumers and PC gamers, preparing mentally for long-term high hardware prices is no longer an empty phrase.