Samsung warns memory chip shortage to worsen through 2027, last until

Samsung supplies roughly a third of the world's memory chips. On July 31, 2026, the company said the global memory shortage will intensify in 2027 and persist until at least 2028.

Frontier artificial intelligence labs are directly sharing their medium- to long-term demand forecasts with Samsung in an effort to secure future memory supply.

This allows Samsung to prioritize customers who commit to long-term contracts, giving it multi-year visibility to install equipment and ramp up production without fearing a sudden drop in demand.

Higher chip prices, driven by the AI boom, pushed Samsung's semiconductor unit to record sales in the second quarter, but raised component costs that squeezed smartphone and TV profits.

Samsung responded by hiking prices on Galaxy smartphones and tablets, causing demand for those devices to drop.

Apple raised prices on MacBooks, Macs, and iPads in June 2026 due to the same shortage, informally called "the RAMaggedon."

On its latest earnings call, Apple projected that revenue growth for the upcoming quarter will slow to between 9% and 11% year-over-year, down from the 16% growth it achieved in the most recent quarter.

Memory manufacturers are shifting production capacity toward AI data centers and away from consumer electronics, pushing up device prices.

Nvidia is expected to increase its consumer graphics card prices by 20% to 30%, which may further drive up costs for gaming devices, desktop computers, consoles, and laptops.