Recently, at the Goldman Sachs virtual investor conference,SK Hynix made this unusual statement, officially announcing that the global storage industry has fully transitioned into a "seller's market."Driven by strong real demand for AI and supply bottlenecks caused by limited clean room space, SK Hynix has released a strong bullish signal to the market.
The company revealed that its DRAM and NAND inventories have now dropped to "extremely low levels" of only about 4 weeks, and are expected to continue to decline throughout the year.This means that suppliers’ bargaining power is significantly enhanced, and the industry chain has begun long-term contract negotiations to lock in future supply.
SK Hynix clearly stated that all HBM production capacity in 2026 has been sold out. In this context, the extreme shortage of standard DRAM is becoming a new bargaining chip in the hands of suppliers. The company said the current tight supply and demand may even lead to more favorable terms for HBM business negotiations in 2027.
This storage shortage caused by AI has triggered a chain reaction throughout the industry. GoogleDeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently admitted that the "entire supply chain" of memory chips is in a restricted state, and hardware-level challenges are limiting large-scale AI deployment.
At the same time, the solid-state drive (SSD) and mechanical hard drive (HDD) markets are also in a hurry, and both Western Digital and Seagate have confirmed that their production capacity will be sold out in 2026.
Phison Electronics CEO Pan Jiancheng even warned that in the second half of this year, some consumer electronics companies may face an existential crisis due to lack of delivery.
Faced with the rigid gap that "all customer needs cannot be met," SK Hynix said that although it will increase capital expenditures moderately, it will still strictly adhere to discipline and focus on high-return HBM and advanced DRAM investments.