NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence

Memory makers mint megabucks while buyers beg for mercy

What happened

Counterpoint Research reports that demand for datacenter capacity and AI accelerators drove a 369 percent year-over-year surge in DRAM revenue in Q3 2026, reaching nearly $200 billion, close to 5x a year ago, while bit shipments rose only about 4 percent for the quarter. Price increases slowed from the steep rises seen in the first half of the year, but average DRAM selling prices still reached $1.90 per gigabit and remained the main driver of revenue growth. Samsung led with a 38 percent share of DRAM revenue and separately forecast company-wide operating profit of about $80 billion for Q3, up from $9 billion a year earlier; SK hynix posted stronger sequential growth and made a $62.8 billion profit, predicting that memory shortages will persist until at least 2030; Micron's DRAM revenue grew more slowly than rivals', but its fiscal fourth-quarter net profit reached $37.7 billion, exceeding its entire second-quarter revenue of $23.8 billion. Counterpoint research director MS Hwang expects memory prices to remain high next year: HBM prices, which lagged commodity DRAM this year, are now catching up, long-term agreements (LTAs) are supporting prices, and supply will stay tight because major new fabs will not start production until 2028.