Memory chip CEO warns 2027 shortage will be so bad that ‘even money can’t buy goods’
The CEO of Taiwanese memory maker Team Group says the global memory chip shortage is about to get worse, to the point where “even money can’t buy goods.” Speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov.
Key points
- 2, CEO Gerry Chen (Chen Ching-wen) said the most severe stretch will run from now through the end of the second quarter of 2027, according to a BigGo Finance report.
- SK Hynix said last month that the shortage will last until 2030, with long-term agreements already covering more than half of its capacity for 2027 and 2028.
- The industry’s biggest suppliers, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, have shifted capacity toward the high-bandwidth memory used in AI chips, leaving less conventional memory for consumer devices, as Fortune reported earlier this year.
If Washington responds by tightening AI chip controls on China, Korean memory makers could face stricter end-user checks that raise compliance costs and delay shipments, the Korea Herald reported.
Additional details
- DDR5 prices are up more than fivefold in a year Contract prices for a 16-gigabit DDR5 chip rose from $8.70 in October 2025 to $48 in September 2026, according to figures cited on the call.
- What the Nvidia probe could mean for memory supply The investigation into Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang adds a new variable.
- “We have contracts but can’t get enough volume, so we have to go to the spot market and pay a premium to grab supply,” he said, according to Tom’s Hardware.
- 16 on the 2026 Fortune 500, relies on Samsung and SK Hynix for the advanced memory in its AI accelerators, so the exposure runs through export policy.
- Consumers are likely to keep absorbing the cost, through pricier PCs and phones or through machines that ship with less memory at the same price.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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