Global DRAM revenue surges toward US$100 billion in 1Q26 on AI-driven demand

The AI-driven surge in HBM demand is fundamentally reshaping the DRAM landscape. Technologically, this accelerates adoption of 1β/1γ nodes and intensifies reliance on advanced packaging like TSV and CoWoS, redirecting equipment orders from logic to memory. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls impose dual compliance burdens on Samsung and SK Hynix’s China fabs, while Taiwan, China-based suppliers are forced into costly supply chain redundancies. In market dynamics, Micron leverages its HBM3E lead, Samsung bets on GAA transistors for next-gen DRAM, and CXMT risks exclusion from the high-end segment without EUV access. Over the next 18 months, structural pricing premiums for HBM and LPDDR5X will sustain elevated revenue levels—even amid AI capex volatility—but a sharp price correction looms by 2027.