According to the latest memory industry survey from TrendForce, the first quarter of 2026 saw a significant acceleration in the contract price increases for conventional DRAM, with a quarterly surge of 93-98%.
This drove the overall industry revenue to grow by 81% quarter-on-quarter, reaching $97 billion.
As AI applications gradually shift from large language model (LLM) training to AI inference, the focus of data center construction by cloud service providers (CSPs) has extended from AI servers to general-purpose servers.
This has expanded memory procurement demand from HBM3e, LPDDR5X, and high-capacity RDIMM to include RDIMM products of various capacity specifications.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, due to extremely low inventory levels at original manufacturers and the prioritization of new supply for high-capacity RDIMM used in AI servers, it will be difficult to meet the demand from PC OEMs and smartphone manufacturers.
Consequently, the overall bit shipment growth for conventional DRAM is expected to be quite limited.
Regarding pricing, as CSPs maintain a relatively open attitude, prompting other customers to follow suit to secure supply from original manufacturers, it is anticipated that conventional DRAM contract prices will still be supported, with a projected quarterly increase of 58-63%.
Analyzing the revenue performance of major DRAM suppliers in the first quarter, the top-ranked
Samsung
saw the largest increase in average selling price (ASP) among the three major manufacturers.
With server DRAM accounting for the highest proportion of its revenue, Samsung's first-quarter revenue surged by 93.4% to $37.32 billion, raising its market share to 38.5%.
SK hynix
had the highest proportion of HBM bit shipments among the three major manufacturers.
However, the decline in HBM contract prices for 2026 tempered the overall increase in its product selling prices.
Its first-quarter revenue reached $27.98 billion, a 62.5% quarterly increase, ranking second with an adjusted market share of 28.8%.
Micron
, ranked third, saw its revenue increase by 81.6% quarter-on-quarter to $21.75 billion, with its market share holding steady at 22.4% compared to the previous quarter.
TrendForce stated that the upward trend in conventional DRAM contract prices continued in the first quarter, with the three major manufacturers focusing their production and shipments on high-unit-price, high-margin server application products.
With the supply-demand imbalance confirmed and cleanroom construction requiring time, original manufacturers in 2026 will primarily rely on process upgrades to expand bit supply, while wafer start capacity can only be slightly increased through production process optimization.
Nanya
,
Winbond
, and
PSMC
focus on mature process products to fill the market demand unmet as the top three manufacturers transition their processes.
In the first quarter, Nanya significantly reduced its own inventory, and significant price increases for DDR4 and DDR3 contracts drove its quarterly revenue up by 60% to $1.55 billion.
Winbond expanded its shipments of DDR4 and LPDDR4 in the first quarter, leading to a quarterly revenue surge of 91.4% to nearly $570 million.
PSMC's revenue, calculated based on its own consumer DRAM products, increased by 29.9% quarter-on-quarter to $43 million.
Including foundry revenue, the total increase was 19.3%.
It is expected that after obtaining Micron's process technology authorization, the company will actively expand its supply.