For anyone who\u2019s been paying attention over the past few months, it\u2019s no surprise that the AI-driven memory chip shortage is pushing up prices on consumer electronics, and that those increases aren\u2019t slowing down anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Now, months after most consumers had already come to terms with the situation, Samsung\u2019s co-CEO, TM Roh, acknowledged the crisis. In an interview with Reuters at CES, Roh addressed the shortage and its implications for the South Korean tech giant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact,\u201d Roh told Reuters,<\/a> acknowledging that the shortage could potentially affect not just smartphones but also TVs and home appliances.<\/p>\n He added that some sort of impact is \u201cinevitable,\u201d and according to Reuters, he did not rule out the prospect of price hikes, though the company is seemingly working with its partners to mitigate some of the impact over the long term.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been clear for months that the AI boom, along with the industry\u2019s race to build massive data centers, has been siphoning manufacturing capacity for memory chips, particularly for DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and NAND flash storage.<\/p>\n Tom\u2019s Hardware reported<\/a> earlier this year that huge data center projects like OpenAI\u2019s Stargate are calling for hundreds of thousands more DRAM wafers per month, amounting to roughly 40% of global DRAM output. In October, OpenAI entered into agreements<\/a> with Samsung and SK Hynix to scale production of advanced memory chips, targeting roughly 900,000 new DRAM wafer starts per month.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s just one company. Google, Meta, and Microsoft are all building out their own data centers to train and run the next generation of AI models.<\/p>\n Supplying these tech giants has proven lucrative for semiconductor companies. In fact, Micron recently decided to wind down its consumer business brand<\/a>, Crucial, to focus on data center demand. That shift has tightened supply for consumer electronics, helping drive prices higher. Even worse, analysts warn that even if supply eventually stabilizes, these higher prices could become the new normal<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the shortage could be a boon for Samsung\u2019s semiconductor business, it also risks putting pressure on its smartphone and consumer electronics divisions.<\/p>\n