I never understood this. They do it because they can. All you have to do to wipe out your competitors and become a monopoly is refuse to raise your prices. They starve themselves, you buy them up cheap.
There’s no monopoly. Micron also makes RAM and they also keep raising prices. It’s supply and demand
According to TrendForce, the boom is expected to continue, as conventional DRAM contract prices in 1Q26 are forecast to rise 55–60% QoQ, while NAND Flash prices are expected to increase 33–38% QoQ.
And that’s in an environment where DRAM output is significantly ramping up:
https://www.theverge.com/news/847344/micron-ram-memory-shortage-2026-earnings
Micron aims to ramp up production and expects to increase its shipments of DRAM and NAND flash memory by 20 percent next year
SK hynix to boost DRAM production by a huge 8x in 2026, still won’t be enough for RAM shortages
EDIT: Also:
The memory sector has surged into a full-blown seller’s market, with both South Korean giants rejecting long-term agreements (LTAs) of two to threes years and sticking to quarterly contracts, anticipating stepwise DRAM price increases each quarter through 2027, the report suggests.
Just a few years ago, they were losing a ton of money due to low DRAM prices, so I imagine that rejecting long-term contracts at current (already high) prices drives even more home that they expect demand to increase further relative to supply:
SK Hynix reports Q2 loss as chip glut continues
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s SK Hynix posted a quarterly operating loss on Wednesday, as the company said the memory chip market is beginning to recover from a deep downturn.
Published on 07/25/2023 at 07:29 pm EDT
