The head of the SK Group, which owns SK hynix, said in a press briefing that memory semiconductor prices are “abnormally high,” and that the industry must take steps to increase supply and help lower prices. The Chosun Daily writes that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won delivered this statement during a press briefing at an industry forum, where he also noted that the group is looking at building a memory chip plant in the U.S. to increase production.
“Memory prices are currently at an abnormally high level. While AI companies can absorb increased costs through investments, PC and smartphone manufacturers have no choice but to pass rising semiconductor costs onto product prices,” Chey told the media. “Since most customers for these products are individuals, there are limits to how much prices can be raised. To prevent 'chipflation'—where rising chip prices drive up finished product costs—supply must be expanded.”
Aside from expanding supply and easing memory prices for consumer products, extremely high memory prices brought about by limited supply could negatively impact the big three companies. That’s because the high margins could lead to the entry of new players or give smaller manufacturers the opportunity to grow their presence and challenge the established firms. We’re already seeing this, as some Chinese brands have ditched them for domestically produced CXMT and YMTC chips. While this could be driven by Beijing, even major multinational brands like Corsair and Lenovo have started sourcing from these companies just to get chips. Even Apple is asking permission from Washington to buy memory chips from CXMT. Aside from that, he also cited Elon Musk’s interest in building his own fab as a potential threat to existing memory semiconductor companies.
This isn’t a problem at the moment as there is more than enough demand to go around for incumbent memory and storage chip manufacturers and new entrants. In fact, memory companies can use this as a defense against price-fixing lawsuits, with the massive AI demand and the higher margins it offers standing as a plausible reason why memory chip companies focused on HBM production and reduced DRAM output. But before the AI boom, the memory industry was actually suffering from one of the worst memory downturns to hit the industry for over a decade. So, if and when the memory shortage is over and the memory industry resumes its boom-and-bust cycle, more manufacturers jockeying to find customers in a tight market would make it that much harder for these companies to survive and thrive.
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