Quarterly Contracts Turn into Five Years? Samsung CEO: Considering Long-term Agreements to Alleviate Memory Shortage

Samsung Memory

Phoenix Technology News, Beijing Time March 18 — According to Bloomberg, Samsung Electronics is considering shifting memory chip contracts to multi-year agreements. This longer-term arrangement helps stabilize supply and alleviates market concerns over shortages of these critical components.

Samsung Co-CEO Jun Young-hyun told shareholders at the annual general meeting that the company is considering extending contracts from quarterly or annual agreements to three to five years. He stated that demand for AI memory chips is expected to continue surging through 2026.

Today, Samsung’s stock price soared by as much as 6.5% on the Korea Exchange, marking the third consecutive day of gains and boosting other group stocks. Samsung C&T and Samsung Life Insurance shares rose by 8.9% and 13%, respectively.

Currently, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron Technology dominate the global memory chip supply. In recent years, these three companies have shifted production toward high-bandwidth memory dedicated to Nvidia’s popular AI accelerators, leading to shortages of traditional memory chips. This shortage has begun to severely impact corporate profits, disrupt planning, and drive up prices for laptops, smartphones, automobiles, and data centers. Many expect the supply crunch to worsen until conditions improve.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said this week that SK Hynix is preparing measures to stabilize prices but did not disclose specifics. Chey Tae-won also predicted that due to inherent limitations in semiconductor manufacturing, the global memory shortage will persist for another four to five years. (Author: Xiao Yu)

(Editors: He Chong)

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