Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both delivered record fourth-quarter 2025 results, underscoring the sharp rise in memory prices and profits as supply across the market tightens.

Chinese customers who had planned to use Samsung Electronics' foundry services abandoned a number of projects in 2025 as US regulatory pressure on China intensified and uncertainty peaked ahead of mass production, according to Korean industry sources. Market participants say conditions may look different in 2026.

Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, as surging memory prices and tight supply, driven by the artificial intelligence boom, more than offset seasonal weakness in smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. The company also warned that an acute chip shortage is expected to persist, creating cost pressures for its mobile and display businesses.

China's semiconductor supply chain is sending a clear signal: a wave of "chip inflation" driven by mature-node manufacturing, memory, and packaging costs is no longer theoretical; it is becoming a structural reality. Following Cmsemicon's decision to raise prices on MCU and NOR Flash products by 15% to 50%, long-stable commodity chips have officially entered an inflation cycle.

SK Hynix is moving to lock out competitors in the high-stakes battle for AI memory, deploying a "one-team" operational strategy that integrates the chipmaker directly into its customers' design processes just as it confirms the mass production of its next-generation HBM4.

Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, underscoring how AI-driven demand for advanced memory has become the company's main earnings engine, even as smartphones, TVs, and home appliances faced seasonal slowdowns and margin pressure.

The surge in AI demand is driving massive memory consumption, pushing the memory industry into a bullish phase. Market consensus expects tight memory supply and demand conditions to ease only by 2028. This shift is impacting industrial PC (IPC) manufacturers not just through short-term inventory fluctuations but evolving into mid- to long-term structural changes. IPC players are now comprehensively adjusting pricing mechanisms, product platforms, and procurement strategies to adapt to this new environment.

SK Hynix announced on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, it will establish a new US-based entity dedicated to artificial intelligence solutions, backed by a planned US$10 billion investment.

SK hynix Inc. announced record-breaking financial results for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday, driven by its dominant competitiveness in the AI memory sector and high-value products like High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).

Taiwan's leading NAND controller and storage solution provider, Phison Electronics Corp., recently announced that its enterprise SSD brand Pascari has partnered with US space data company Lonestar Data Holdings on the award-winning Freedom Mission, a milestone project highlighting the rising strategic importance of secure and resilient data storage in the AI era.

Memory testing and packaging firm Powertech Technology (PTI) reported that its revenue and earnings met expectations in the fourth quarter of 2025. Quarterly revenue reached NT$21.41 billion (approx. US$681.38 million), up 25.2% year-over-year. Net income attributable to the owners of the parent totaled NT$1.86 billion, increasing 21.2% quarterly and 22.3% year-over-year, while earnings per share stood at NT$2.52.

Memory giant Macronix (MXIC) has decided to resume its capital expenditure plan, allocating NT$22 billion (approx. US$704 million) in 2026 to aggressively expand its severely short-supplied MLC NAND production capacity and fill market gaps left by major players exiting MLC NAND.

Apple is set to report fiscal first-quarter 2026 earnings on January 29, with strong sales of the iPhone 17 expected to drive record operating performance and solid smartphone shipments. The iPhone 17 lineup, which offers added features without price increases, has seen particularly strong demand in China and the US.

Samsung Electronics is emerging as the leading supplier of sixth-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4) to Nvidia and AMD as of February 2026, backed by growing confidence in its production ramp.

Recent reports indicate that SK Hynix has become the exclusive HBM supplier for Microsoft's next-generation AI accelerator, Maia 200, underscoring its competitiveness in the HBM3E market. As medium- to long-term demand expands, Microsoft may eventually adopt a multi-supplier approach, which could intensify market competition.

A fresh wave of memory price hikes is sweeping across the semiconductor supply chain, spreading from AI memory products into manufacturing, packaging, and testing, and upstream materials and critical components. Known Good Die (KGD), long a low-profile yet tightly linked segment of the ecosystem, is now emerging as a key pressure point in the latest pricing surge.

Texas Instruments (TI) signaled urgency around capacity planning, stressing that today's capital spending choices will determine its ability to serve demand years ahead, while downplaying fears that rising memory prices are constraining near-term demand across its core markets.

As the Trump administration intensifies its push for US-based semiconductor manufacturing, Micron recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for its planned megafab in the town of Clay, north of Syracuse, New York, braving freezing temperatures to mark the start of the project.

NAND flash prices are soaring, with industry insiders expecting upstream contract prices to surge over 100% in the first quarter of 2026. As NAND manufacturers aggressively upgrade their processes, Samsung Electronics will cease shipments of MLC NAND by the end of the second quarter of 2025, repurposing cleanroom space for DRAM production. Meanwhile, 3D NAND capacity is shifting toward V8 and V9 stacking technologies, leading to a substantial reduction in overall NAND output in 2026.

China has reportedly been conditionally approving corporate purchases of Nvidia's H200, reshaping HBM supply-demand dynamics. According to Seoul Economic Daily and G-enews, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities granted conditional approval for major Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Tencent Holdings, and ByteDance to purchase Nvidia's H200. Due to the H200's heavy HBM requirements, this development will also impact Samsung and SK Hynix.

A deepening global memory chip shortage is beginning to raise serious concerns within the automotive industry, as surging demand from artificial intelligence (AI) applications increasingly crowds out supply. With software-defined vehicles (SDVs), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and in-vehicle infotainment becoming mainstream, automakers are now facing mounting risks tied to memory availability, pricing, and product design.

Samsung Electronics' television and home appliance divisions are struggling to secure memory supplies as rising prices prompt the company's semiconductor arm to prioritize higher-margin customers and products, according to South Korean industry outlet Dealsite.

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing is fueling a new wave of structural growth in the global printed circuit board (PCB) industry.

Micron has started construction on an advanced wafer fabrication facility at its existing NAND manufacturing complex in Singapore, marking a planned investment of approximately US$24 billion over 10 years. The new facility is expected to provide 700,000 square feet of cleanroom space, with wafer production scheduled to begin in the second half of 2028, aiming to meet growing demand for NAND memory driven by AI and data-intensive applications.