A persistent shortage of conventional memory chips could create diverging credit impact across Asia's tech hardware sector in 2026, S&P Global Ratings said in a recent release.

The shortage stems from a shift in capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other chips for AI servers, S&P said.

Memory prices may rise across all chip types, which would strongly benefit producers like Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) and SK Hynix (KRX:000660), the rating agency said.

The smartphone segment, particularly smaller players, will be the most negatively affected, while major firms like Lenovo (HKG:0992) and Xiaomi (HKG:1810) should maintain buffers despite margin contraction, according to the rating agency.

Memory price trends driven by AI spending will be pivotal for most Asian technology firms next year, creating "a layer of inflation" that impacts costs in different measures, S&P said.