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Monday 30 March 2026
Kioxia outlines supply strategy, stresses new 2027 capacity won't disrupt NAND market balance
As generative AI (GenAI) shifts from large-model training to large-scale inference, Japanese NAND giant Kioxia forecasts continued price increases for NAND and SSD products. Despite planned capacity expansions by various NAND manufacturers in 2027, Kioxia expects no risk of oversupply imbalance due to the rapid growth in AI demand.
Monday 30 March 2026
Samsung reportedly shifts Xi'an plant to 236-layer NAND

Samsung Electronics has reportedly begun mass production of 236-layer NAND flash at its Xi'an plant in China, marking a key step in its transition to higher-layer memory as demand from artificial intelligence applications accelerates.

Monday 30 March 2026
Sony raises PlayStation 5 prices amid memory costs spike
Sony Group's gaming subsidiary, Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced on March 27 that it would raise the global retail price of its flagship home console, the PlayStation 5, effective April 2. In Japan, the suggested retail price of the standard model will climb to JPY97,980 (approx. US$613), a steep increase of roughly 23%. A Japan-only version, introduced in 2025 without a disc drive and limited to the Japanese language, will remain unchanged at JPY55,000.
Monday 30 March 2026
AI-driven memory market set to top US$600 billion on rising storage demand
The global semiconductor memory market is expected to surpass US$600 billion by 2026, as artificial intelligence accelerates a shift toward high-performance storage, according to industry executives.
Monday 30 March 2026
Weekly news roundup: AI, supply chains, new entrants intensify global chip race
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 23-27, 2026:
Monday 30 March 2026
AI compression won't ease memory crunch, NAND shortage set to persist
AI-driven demand is tightening global memory supply, pushing NAND flash and server DRAM into shortages, price hikes, and capacity constraints. Server memory demand is expected to grow more than 40% in 2026, accounting for over half of total storage usage.
Monday 30 March 2026
DRAM scaling hits limits as next-generation memory faces delays

The global DRAM industry is approaching a structural inflection point, as traditional scaling methods struggle to deliver the performance gains required by artificial intelligence workloads. With next-generation architectures such as 4F-squared (4F²) and 3D DRAM facing rising complexity and potential delays, manufacturers are being forced to reassess near-term roadmaps and rely more heavily on incremental and material-level improvements.

Sunday 29 March 2026
Samsung's 2026 strike poses bigger challenges despite economic shift and tripled scale
Samsung Electronics is facing a looming labor strike in May as its memory and foundry businesses take off, marking a more complex challenge than the initial 2024 walkout. The upcoming strike reflects significant changes in industry conditions and union size, highlighting Samsung's structural difficulties with labor issues amid evolving laws and its broad business portfolio.
Sunday 29 March 2026
Innodisk says AI success depends on software-hardware integration, signaling shifts for edge and industry deployments
Innodisk told attendees at the 2026 AI EXPO that effective AI deployment requires more than raw computing power; it depends on tight integration between software and hardware, and on selecting components tailored to specific environments. The company argued that edge AI has progressed from image recognition and language models to autonomous learning and decision-making.
Sunday 29 March 2026
Adata invests US$3 million in KonstTech to boost AI computing infrastructure
Amid the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLM), global demand for high-performance computing (HPC) continues to rise. Memory module maker Adata Technology announced a US$3 million investment in the Series A funding round of artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure provider KonstTech (Konst).
Sunday 29 March 2026
AI demand leaves memory industry's commodity model intact

espite a surge in demand driven by generative artificial intelligence, the fundamental economics of the memory industry remain largely intact. While high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has created a premium segment, the broader market continues to operate on standardized, high-volume production rather than structural product differentiation.

Sunday 29 March 2026
AMD, Meta reportedly audit Samsung HBM4 lines as supply shifts from pledges to validation

Samsung Electronics' next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) program is entering a customer validation phase, according to NewDaily, as major technology firms reportedly begin on-site audits of its production lines.

Sunday 29 March 2026
SK Hynix and Kioxia targeted in US ITC memory chip probe
On March 27, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) launched an investigation into memory chip imports by SK Hynix Inc. and KIOXIA Holdings Corporation following a patent complaint filed by MonolithIC 3D Inc., according to a notice published by the agency.
Saturday 28 March 2026
Samsung bets on turnkey strategy as non-memory strength becomes critical
Samsung Electronics is aggressively pushing its semiconductor "super-gap" core strategy centered on a turnkey solution model. However, the success of this approach hinges on restoring and rebuilding competitiveness in its non-memory businesses.
Friday 27 March 2026
SK Hynix CEO expected to meet Microsoft executive on memory supply

SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung is expected to meet Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud and AI at Microsoft, in Seoul this week to discuss memory supply, according to Maeil Business Newspaper, citing industry sources.

Friday 27 March 2026
CXMT revenue doubles on AI-driven memory boom ahead of major China IPO

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) more than doubled revenue to about US$8 billion in 2025, as surging demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers drove up memory chip prices, according to Bloomberg. The growth provides a boost to the strategically important Chinese chipmaker ahead of a planned domestic IPO.

Friday 27 March 2026
DRAM ASPs surged up to 80% QoQ in 1Q26, fueling US$1 trillion chip boom and supply squeeze, says Omdia analyst

The global semiconductor industry is set to surpass the US$1 trillion revenue mark in 2026, driven by accelerating artificial intelligence demand, but the milestone comes with mounting structural pressures—particularly in memory—that are beginning to ripple across the broader electronics ecosystem.

Friday 27 March 2026
In-depth: Google TurboQuant cuts LLM memory 6x, resets AI inference cost curve

Google has introduced TurboQuant, a compression algorithm that reduces large language model (LLM) memory usage by at least 6x while boosting performance, targeting one of AI's most persistent bottlenecks: memory. The breakthrough lowers inference costs and expands deployment across cloud and edge environments.

Friday 27 March 2026
SK Hynix targets KRW100 trillion net cash as AI demand surges, eyes US listing

SK Hynix plans to build more than KRW100 trillion (approx. US$66 billion) in net cash to support long-term investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as surging demand reshapes the memory industry and drives a new round of capital spending.

Friday 27 March 2026
Adata secures NT$12B syndicated loan to drive expansion, debuts Trusta for edge AI infrastructure
Taiwan's memory module giant Adata Technology has secured a NT$12 billion (US$375 million) syndicated loan led by Bank of Taiwan, strengthening its mid-term working capital while advancing its expansion into enterprise AI infrastructure.
Friday 27 March 2026
SK Hynix keeps HBM shipments steady, targets HBM4E sample this year

SK Hynix expects stable growth in its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) business this year and plans to keep shipments in line with initial projections as it advances its next-generation roadmap amid evolving market conditions.

Friday 27 March 2026
DRAM and NAND costs hit 90% of smartphone prices, squeezing low-end profits
Core component costs for smartphones are surging at unprecedented rates, threatening the survival of low-priced models in the market. Nikkei reports that prices for two essential memory types—DRAM (mainly LPDDR) and NAND flash—are soaring faster than ever before.
Friday 27 March 2026
Samsung and SK Hynix expand microscope procurement to boost HBM yield
As AI compute demand surges, the rising need for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) testing and failure analysis is reshaping semiconductor inspection equipment markets, affecting chipmakers, foundries, and equipment suppliers worldwide. Demand for integrated microscopy platforms and localised service hubs is increasing to control yield, reduce costly iterations, and secure AI supply-chain positions.
Friday 27 March 2026
Micron inaugurates Tongluo site, targets fiscal 2028 DRAM, HBM output

Micron Technology, on March 26, held an inauguration ceremony for its Tongluo site in Miaoli County, marking a milestone following the acquisition of a facility previously owned by Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC).

Thursday 26 March 2026
Dell sees stronger AI demand boosting early PC orders despite memory price hikes
Dell Taiwan general manager Terence Liao said enterprise adoption of AI will continue expanding in scope and scale through 2026. Dell has shipped Nvidia's B300 and GB300 AI servers, with the GB10 model especially popular. While AI servers are booming, the PC market faces headwinds from memory shortages and rising prices, which inevitably impact sales. Liao expects memory price increases to persist, making current PC prices the lowest point for the year.