Samsung was quick to respond this morning when speculators rapidly spread reports of an unprecedented 80% price hike on its entire memory product line. Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News reports that both Samsung and a number of memory module manufacturing partners are claiming that the 80% number is a total fabrication.
While Samsung, like every other semiconductor manufacturer on Earth, is beginning to raise prices as supply shrivels, a unilateral 80% upcharge is reportedly not part of the plans. Rumors supporting this steep upcharge began swirling yesterday, when an alleged memo from a Samsung distributor surfaced claiming that "due to significant changes in the global semiconductor market", all Samsung memory products were set to be hit with an 80% price increase.
價格調整通知 - 三星(Samsung)敬愛的貴賓客戶：感謝您一直以來對我們的信賴與支持。作為三星記憶體產品的授權經銷商/代理商，我們在此正式通知您：由於全球半導體市場發生重大變化，包括供應持續受限以及上游製造成本大幅上漲，三星已正式宣布進行價格調整。… https://t.co/YNsGdAj187 pic.twitter.com/uTBqhpfU25January 22, 2026
The rumors of a price explosion found seeming legitimacy when an X investment account retweeted the above document, claiming it to be confirmed via a "DS Giheung employee's firsthand account". DS Giheung refers to Samsung's Giheung Device Solutions campus, the branch of Samsung focused on manufacturing and memory design.
According to the Taiwanese press, Samsung has fully denied claims of an across-the-board 80% price rise on its entire memory product suite. While some Samsung distributors have raised prices on their end to respond to market pressures, all interviewed manufacturers at Samsung and elsewhere state they have not seen any correspondence from Samsung relating to a price increase, according to the report.
While the document above might not be legit, the frenetic nature of the current RAM market and news have seen stranger things happen over the last few months, making such a claim of a sudden 80% price increase almost totally believable.
From 2024 to 2025, DRAM prices grew 171% year-over-year, outpacing the value of gold, thanks to AI data center clients stifling the world's supply. Samsung's own prices on individual memory chips grew 60% in just two months last year, from September to November. And while Samsung did announce that it would delay its DDR4 end of life deadline in the wake of the chaos, this reportedly only came due to a deal with a "key customer", funnelling all of Samsung's DDR4 production into the server market, and leaving the outside market still dying of thirst.
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