"Market That Never Existed": Nvidia CEO Sparks Frenzy In Memory Stocks
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized in his Monday CES keynote that memory will be a major value driver across the AI universe, a view that aligns with our observation in 2H25 that data-center buildouts are aggressively absorbing DRAM and HBM capacity. With supply already tight and pricing soaring, this environment is translating into earnings tailwinds for memory producers, prompting UBS to say last week that the current memory upcycle could "turbo-charge" Samsung Electronics' profits.
"For storage, that is a completely unserved market today," Huang told the audience at CES on Monday. "This is a market that never existed, and this market will likely be the largest storage market in the world, basically holding the working memory of the world's AIs."
Chipmakers led gains on Tuesday after Huang highlighted storage as an "unserved market," with SanDisk soaring as much as 28%. Storage companies Western Digital and Seagate Technology also posted double-digit percentage gains.
Mizuho trading-desk analyst Jordan Klein told MarketWatch that Huang's comments are "bullish" for memory companies. He noted that Huang discussed "how important memory will be for AI use cases and inferencing, such as long reasoning and [key-value] cache to recall all user inquiries with agentic AI."
SanDisk and other memory and storage companies are "key beneficiaries" of the push for "AI inferencing and AI at the edge" in 2026, Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan told clients recently.
Chatbots: soaking up all the world's power, water and memory pic.twitter.com/L2mcdcLSko
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Mohan expects tech firms to retain large amounts of data for training, analytics, and compliance purposes, with demand for storage "skyrocketing in tandem." In particular, he noted the growing demand for EVs, drones, surveillance, and sports technology.
Also, last week, UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois highlighted to clients the uptick in memory is expected to "turbo-charge earnings" for Samsung's memory business. The report is available in full here.
The latest DDR5 DRAM pricing on Amazon!
Last month, Goldman analyst Maho Kamiya told clients that mounting concerns about soaring memory prices pose new risks for Nintendo, which manufactures consumer electronics such as the popular Switch 2.
The great memory crunch has arrived.