The chairman of global PC manufacturer Acer publicly challenged the industry's projection that memory prices will continue rising until 2027. He argued that "everyone is holding full inventories," asserting that the shortage in memory supply has been somewhat alleviated by a flood of products from Chinese companies.
China's largest DRAM manufacturer, CXMT (Changxin Memory), is also expected to become a variable for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as it moves into its next-generation product, Yangsan.
According to local media such as the Taiwan Economic Journal on the 21st, Acer Chairman Chen Jun-sheng stated at the "King's Way Management and AI International Forum" held on the 19th that there is no memory shortage. He said, "How can it remain in short supply?" and added, "China's production capacity continues to emerge, so the issue of supply shortage has completely disappeared." He also diagnosed that contract prices for memory are currently fluctuating around a high point.
Regarding projections from major memory suppliers that prices will continue to rise until 2027, Chen argued, "Many companies say prices will keep rising, but in fact, everyone is holding full inventories." In particular, he pointed to Chinese memory manufacturers as "price disruptors," viewing it as difficult for price increases to persist due to the continued supply of large volumes.
China's largest DRAM manufacturer, CXMT, announced that it has entered its fifth-generation DRAM technology platform, Yangsan. The new platform is expected to increase the number of chips producible from a single wafer by at least 50% compared to the existing fourth-generation platform.
Two types of 24Gb LPDDR5X products applying this technology are currently in production on Yangsan. Reuters evaluated that this technological advancement could enhance CXMT's competitiveness against Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron in the global memory market.
However, industry forecasts differ from Chen's diagnosis. Market research firm TrendForce believes that DRAM supply shortages will continue into 2027 due to expanded demand for AI (artificial intelligence) servers and HBM (high-bandwidth memory). In particular, it forecasted that the increase in DRAM demand next year will outpace supply expansion, making the shortage worse than this year.
Supply and demand conditions also vary by product. Chen stated that while some high-performance memories such as LPDDR5 and DDR5-9600 remain in short supply, DDR4 is a case where "there are many sellers but few buyers." DDR4 is an older generation DRAM mainly used in legacy PCs and servers, whereas DDR5 is a high-performance product with strong demand centered on the latest PCs and servers. According to Chen's explanation, CPU (central processing unit) shortages are generally not present either.
While supply has eased for some products, price increases for certain components continue, keeping the burden of PC prices intact. Chen said, "Customers complain but still rush to grab products," and predicted that selling prices will rise by 5% to 20% depending on the product even in the fourth quarter of this year.
Chen noted that while PC prices could rise further until the first quarter of 2027, component prices are likely to stabilize after reaching a peak around mid-next year when additional semiconductor expansion capacity comes online. However, he added that "a decline in PC prices is merely 'hope'" and that "no one knows when the turning point will come."
in TECH
