The RAM chip shortage now has a timeline, and it is not a short one. Samsung, which manufactures roughly a third of the world’s memory chips, told investors on its Q2 2026 earnings call that supply will tighten further in 2027 before conditions ease, with pressure expected to persist into 2028.
Jaejune Kim, executive vice president of Samsung’s memory business, was unambiguous on the call: technology.org reports his words as: ‘The supply shortage in 2027 is expected to worsen compared to this year, and it is expected to continue in 2028.’
That outlook has done nothing to dampen Samsung’s near-term financial performance. Reuters reports the company’s semiconductor division posted an operating profit of approximately 89.2 trillion won ($61.7 billion) in Q2 2026, up more than 250-fold year on year, with company-wide operating profit reaching 89.5 trillion won ($61.98 billion) on revenue of 171.5 trillion won. Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Seok-hwan put the semiconductor unit’s operating profit margin at 70% for the quarter, a record, and noted investors are already asking how long that is sustainable.
AI Labs Are Queueing Up, and Samsung Is Choosing Its Customers Carefully
Frontier AI labs, keen to secure memory infrastructure ahead of the shortage worsening, have been sharing medium- to long-term demand forecasts directly with Samsung to guarantee future allocation. The company is using that visibility to prioritise customers willing to commit to long-term contracts, a deliberate strategy to avoid the memory industry’s notorious boom-and-bust cycles.
According to Reuters, Samsung has already signed long-term supply agreements with the five largest global data centre firms and is close to deals with five more, with the aim of placing roughly two-thirds of its memory output under contract over the longer term. Rival Micron has locked in $22 billion in long-term supply commitments from customers on a similar basis.
On the product side, Samsung expects HBM4 revenue to more than triple in Q3 2026, which it says should bring its HBM market share in line with its broader DRAM market share in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and AMD are among Samsung’s HBM customers.
Consumers Are Paying the RAM Chip Shortage Bill
The flip side of record semiconductor profits is that every device that contains memory has become more expensive. Apple has raised prices across its Mac and iPad lines: Reuters reports the MacBook Air with 512GB of storage climbed from $1,099 to $1,299, the MacBook Pro with 1TB of storage from $1,699 to $1,999, and the iPad Air with 128GB from $599 to $749. Yahoo Finance adds that the iPad Pro 11-inch rose from $999 to $1,199, the 13-inch from $1,299 to $1,499, and the MacBook Pro 14-inch from $1,699 to $1,999, with the 16-inch going from $2,699 to $2,999.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had flagged the direction of travel back in late April, saying ‘we expect significantly higher memory costs’ and that ‘beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business.’ On its Q3 2026 earnings call, CNBC reports Cook confirmed the company has paid higher memory costs for each of the past three quarters and expects costs to rise further, though some impact will be partially offset by inventory on hand and expected savings on non-memory components.
Apple guided Q3 2026 revenue growth of 9% to 11% year on year, short of the 12% analysts had expected per LSEG data, with CFO Kevan Parekh citing foreign exchange headwinds and iPhone supply constraints alongside memory costs. The Globe and Mail reports Apple guided gross margin of 47%–48% for the September quarter, with memory cost inflation cited as a key source of pressure expected to intensify.
Samsung itself is not immune. Higher chip prices have squeezed margins in its smartphone and TV divisions, and the company has begun passing those costs on through Galaxy device price increases. Demand for those devices has since dropped.
It is not just Apple and Samsung consumers absorbing the pain. Yahoo Finance notes that Microsoft and other PC makers, along with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony for gaming consoles, have also raised prices on laptops, desktops, and consoles as a result of the shortage.
Graphics card buyers face the sharpest increases. Tom’s Hardware reports Nvidia RTX 50 series prices in South Korea are rising by up to 30%, driven partly by GDDR7 memory modules costing approximately $20 each and TSMC wafer price increases, pushing the RTX 5090 past $5,100. Multiple distributors confirmed hikes beginning in August. BigGo Finance, citing Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, notes this is Nvidia’s third GPU price increase of 2026, following a 10%–15% hike in January and a narrower May increase targeting only the RTX 5090. Board partners are now paying nearly a third more for GPU bundles that include both the graphics chip and GDDR memory.
Research firm IDC estimates the smartphone market will see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14% this year, with the PC market falling 11.3%, as rising memory costs suppress device demand. Samsung’s semiconductor margins may be record-breaking, but the consumer device market is being hollowed out to get there. The question is whether those AI lab contracts keep filling the gap once consumers stop upgrading.
