A recent industry tracking research report on memory chips from Japan-based financial giant Nomura reveals that, driven by the strong resonance of "soaring demand for enterprise-grade high-performance server DRAM, HBM memory systems, and data center high-performance SSDs, fueled by the faster-than-expected acceleration of global AI data center construction," the price uptrend for DRAM/NAND memory chips has steepened. Notably, server DRAM prices surged approximately 60% quarter-on-quarter in Q4. Nomura significantly raised its profit forecasts for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix starting from Q4 2025, further increasing their 12-month target stock prices. The analysts at Nomura judge that this "memory super cycle," which began in the second half of this year, will persist at least until 2027, with truly meaningful new supply increments unlikely to emerge before early 2028. Exceptionally robust recent financial results from the global top three memory chip giants—Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology—as well as other storage leaders like Western Digital and Seagate, have prompted major financial institutions like Nomura, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley to proclaim the arrival of a "memory super cycle." This highlights how the ongoing explosive global expansion in AI training/inference computing demand, coupled with the consumer electronics recovery cycle driven by the AI-on-device boom, is comprehensively fueling exponential demand growth for DRAM/NAND memory products. This is particularly true for HBM memory—a high-margin segment within DRAM dominated by Samsung, Hynix, and Micron—and server-grade high-performance DDR5; additionally, demand for enterprise-grade SSDs in the NAND segment has also shown a recent surge. Analysts at Morgan Stanley stated in a December research report that Micron's performance indicates "the best revenue and profit growth trajectory in the history of the U.S. semiconductor industry, excluding Nvidia." Morgan Stanley's analyst team expects Micron's revenue for the fiscal year ending in August to nearly double. Since announcing its results last week, Micron's stock price has climbed over 25%, repeatedly hitting new all-time highs. The three dominant memory chip manufacturers—SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron—are collectively shifting a majority of their production capacity towards HBM memory systems. These products require advanced process nodes and involve significantly greater manufacturing and packaging/testing complexity compared to DDR series or HDD/SSD memory chips. Consequently, this large-scale migration of capacity to HBM by the three leaders is substantially contributing to supply shortages for other storage product categories. To focus its memory production capacity on meeting the "exponentially expanding" demand from large-scale new AI data centers, Micron even announced in early December that it would stop selling storage products to individual consumers in the PC/DIY market. This underscores the intensifying surge in enterprise demand for high-performance, data center-grade DRAM and NAND products amid the global AI infrastructure boom. Whether it's Google's massive TPU AI computing clusters or vast clusters of Nvidia AI GPUs, all rely on HBM memory systems fully integrated with AI chips. Furthermore, the current accelerated construction or expansion of AI data centers by tech giants necessitates large-scale purchases of server-grade DDR5 memory and enterprise-grade high-performance SSDs/HDDs. Nomura reiterated that the "super cycle" will last until 2027. The analyst team at Nomura suggested that investors should continue to overweight memory sector leaders in 2026, focusing on the "price-profit-valuation" triple play as the main investment theme for memory chips, rather than viewing the sector solely through the narrow lens of HBM. The institution expects the three major memory chip companies to achieve record-high profits. Nomura stated that the profit drivers for the three leading memory chip makers will evolve from "HBM performing a solo dance" to a trio of hardcore narratives: "HBM + commodity-style bull market in DRAM + enterprise SSD/NAND." The advice is to capture the "upward revision cycle" rather than merely betting on "valuation stories." The more "switchable" product structures of the big three memory chip makers also imply a more durable demand cycle: when commodity segment profits improve rapidly, manufacturers are not forced to "passively accept orders" for HBM systems but can allocate resources between HBM and commodity DRAM/NAND based on marginal profit expansion. This effectively enhances supply-side discipline and pricing power within the industry chain. Nomura's latest assessment reaffirms that this "memory chip super cycle" will last at least until the end of 2027, with the report explicitly stating that "meaningful supply increases are expected earliest in 2028." The report repeatedly emphasizes that expanding production capacity for memory chips and HDD/SSD storage components is not something that can be done overnight, involving complex timelines for greenfield/brownfield projects and customized semiconductor equipment upgrade plans. Using SK Hynix as an example, Nomura pinpoints capacity constraints to factors like long lead times for cleanroom/wafer fab capacity, significant delays in cycle times and yield improvements due to advanced process upgrades, and limitations on constructing/upgrading overseas chip factories, thereby concluding that supply growth will be slower and the supply gap will persist longer. Nomura remains firmly bullish on SK Hynix and Samsung! It has raised the target prices for the South Korean "memory chip duo." In its report, Nomura maintained a "Buy" rating on SK Hynix and set a target price as high as 880,000 Korean Won, up from a previous expectation of 840,000 Won, implying a potential upside of nearly 50% over the next 12 months in Nomura's view. The Nomura analyst team stated: "As AI investment and server cluster deployments by tech giants intensify, pricing power is comprehensively shifting towards suppliers. Memory companies are operating in an upcycle market environment that allows for more flexible adjustment of product mixes." Nomura significantly raised its profit estimates for Q4 and the full year 2026, emphasizing that profitability for commodity DRAM is expected to catch up with or even surpass that of HBM memory systems, which have been the primary driver of SK Hynix's recent performance growth, thus making profit elasticity less dependent solely on HBM supply expansion. This Nomura report attributes SK Hynix's capacity constraints to cleanroom and expansion timing (the commissioning window for new production lines/campuses) and delays associated with process technology upgrades, leading to greater confidence that the favorable industry conditions can extend into 2027. Simultaneously, Nomura also raised the target price for Samsung Electronics from 1.5 million Korean Won to 1.6 million Won, implying a potential upside of approximately 45% over the next 12 months. The report noted that, given the continued rise in memory chip prices, Samsung Electronics' earnings still have significant room for improvement into next year. "As prices for general-purpose DRAM and NAND flash memory both increased substantially in the fourth quarter, profitability in the memory industry is improving rapidly," the Nomura analyst team stated. The Nomura report indicates that prices for general-purpose DRAM rose 30%-40% in Q4, while prices for high-performance data center server DRAM are estimated to have increased 40%-60% quarter-on-quarter. The report highlights that Samsung trades at a much lower P/B ratio compared to its peers, suggesting that further increases to its target price will depend on improvements in its capital expenditure discipline, shareholder returns, and competitiveness in both memory technology and chip contract manufacturing. Nomura mentioned that Samsung is more likely to focus on critical nodes like DDR5 capacity expansion and HBM4 production ramp-up, rather than being overly fixated on the deployment pace of HBM3E with specific customers.