'Name Your Price' Era Over—Sold Out Amid DRAM Shortage... Prices Already Up 80%, Set to Jump Another 50%

Impact of Memory Manufacturers' Supply Cuts

Low-Capacity Products Now Leading the Surge After High-Capacity Modules

Upward Trend Expected to Continue Following Q1

As global semiconductor prices continue their steep upward trend, there are projections that DRAM prices could rise by as much as 50% in the second quarter of this year.

Photo unrelated to specific expressions in the article. Getty Images Bank

According to the semiconductor industry on April 8, market research firm TrendForce stated the previous day, "Recently, major memory manufacturers have been continuously discontinuing the production of older DRAM products (DDR4 and below), leading to tighter supply and a significant increase in DRAM prices over the past several months." Based on these factors, the firm made such projections.

TrendForce also observed that the slow pace of facility expansion by Taiwanese firms is expected to further drive up prices. While this increase is expected to be lower than the estimated 75-80% surge in DRAM prices in the first quarter, the upward momentum is still projected to continue.

This price increase is being led by low-capacity products, following the previous surge in high-capacity products. TrendForce analyzed that last month's rise in consumer DRAM prices was mainly driven by products of 4GB or less.

Projected Consumer DRAM Price Increase for Q1-Q2 2026. TrendForce.

The average price of DDR4 4GB modules rose by more than 20% compared to the previous month, significantly outpacing the increases seen in high-capacity products. TrendForce explained that this was due to the combination of rising DDR4 prices and the announcement by major manufacturers to end production of certain legacy process products.

In this environment, while Taiwanese firms have shifted their production capacity to DDR4, market demand has expanded to even older DDR3 and DDR2 products.

Due to ongoing supply shortages, DDR3 and DDR2 prices alone rose by 20-40% in March. As a result, Taiwanese companies have already adopted aggressive pricing policies, including price hikes implemented in March.

On the other hand, TrendForce anticipates that the price increases for Korean manufacturers, who are maintaining relatively higher average selling prices (ASP), will be more moderate in the short term.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.