[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] Due to the sharp rise in memory prices, not only global Big Tech companies but also PC and smartphone manufacturers are adjusting their memory procurement strategies.

On the 12th, market research firm TrendForce stated, “The cost burden on the consumer electronics industry is growing increasingly severe due to the rise in memory prices that has persisted for over a year,” adding, “Some manufacturers are adjusting their memory procurement plans and have begun renegotiating product configurations and supply requirements for 2027 with memory suppliers.”

The report explains that manufacturers, anticipating continued price increases for PC DRAM due to expanded investment in artificial intelligence (AI), procured more than they actually needed, but inventory is now rising due to sluggish sales. TrendForce reported that PC manufacturers are also revising downward their purchase plans for consumer solid-state drives (SSDs) for the first quarter of 2027.

The report added that these companies are considering expanding the share of their own-brand models and adopting lower-specification memory semiconductors and central processing units (CPUs) with fewer cores to improve profitability.

The smartphone market is also diversifying its response to skyrocketing memory prices. Some small and medium-sized smartphone manufacturers are going beyond simply switching to lower-spec memory and are even opting for recycled memory to reduce cost burdens.

The IT media outlet TechRadar recently projected that memory processed through recycling will account for 3–4% of the smartphone market this year, forecasting that this proportion will expand to 7–9% next year. This is due to soaring memory prices. The share of memory in the component costs of low-end smartphones has risen from 20% in the third quarter of last year to 54% recently.

In the AI semiconductor market, changes are emerging to address the shortage of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and reduce costs. Intel adopted LPDDR5X—a low-power DRAM primarily used in smartphones—instead of HBM for its “GPU D-Series” inference accelerator, unveiled last month. Qualcomm also adopted LPDDR for its “AI200” inference accelerator. Both companies focused on securing large-capacity memory at relatively low cost and power consumption.

Conversely, there are predictions that the supply capacity for general-purpose DRAM for PCs could become even more limited as memory suppliers—such as SamsungElectronics(005930)and SK hynix(000660) —focus on high-value-added products for AI. While PC and smartphone manufacturers are reducing their memory purchases due to price pressures, suppliers are restructuring their product portfolios toward AI server DRAM and low-power DRAM, for which demand remains relatively robust.

SamsungElectronics announced last month during its third-quarter earnings call that it would expand sales of HBM4, server DRAM, and enterprise SSDs. SK hynix also plans to increase the proportion of its 6th-generation 10-nanometer-class (1c) process and boost the supply of DDR5 and LPDDR5-based SOCAMM modules for AI servers.