SK hynix said on April 23, during a two-day conference call on its 2026 first-quarter earnings, that recent weakness in DRAM spot prices is not a reliable gauge of broader market conditions.
“The spot market accounts for a very small share of the overall DRAM market, and the types and scale of products traded differ from our business,” the company said. “In the current market environment, it is difficult to view spot price moves as reflecting overall market conditions.”
SK hynix said memory demand from major customers is rising across products including high-bandwidth memory, server DRAM and enterprise SSDs, while suppliers face constraints on expanding output in the short term.
“If this supply-demand imbalance persists, the memory price upcycle could last longer than in the past,” it said.
The company also pointed to structural shifts in the artificial intelligence industry as a driver of demand.
“As software and hardware optimization progress simultaneously in the AI industry, the way memory is used is changing,” SK hynix said. It added that memory-efficiency technologies may appear to reduce usage per device, but are evolving to maximize information processing per unit of memory.
SK hynix said the changes could improve service economics, creating a virtuous cycle that expands the overall AI market and increases memory demand.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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