SK Chairman Warns Global Memory Crunch May Last Until 2030

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won warned that the global high-bandwidth memory crunch, driven by AI data center buildouts, will last until the end of the decade.

Chey told reporters on the sidelines of Nvidia's annual developer conference, 'GTC 2026,' at the San Jose Convention Center in California on Monday that the memory chip shortage could last another four to five years, with supply unlikely to catch up to demand until 2030.

He explained, "The supply shortage problem stems from a wafer shortage, and it takes at least four to five years to secure more wafers," adding, "We expect the supply shortage (across the industry) to persist at over 20% until 2030."

"I will do my best to stabilize prices," he noted. "I understand that our CEO (Kwak No-jung) will soon announce a new plan to stabilize DRAM prices."

Chey was asked by a reporter about plans to move manufacturing plants or production capacity to the US under President Trump's 'Make America Great Again' industrial base buildout. He responded that, at the moment, intentions are mostly focused on facilities in South Korea.

He explained, "It is the same wherever we go, and even if we establish production capabilities outside of Korea, it takes the same amount of time. Since Korea already has an established foundation, we can respond much more quickly, which is why we are focusing on Korea."

Chey’s timeline for how long the memory crunch will linger is set to cause a "tsunami-like shock" across the global smartphone industry, according to a recent report from the market research firm International Data Corporation. The shock is expected to spread to every consumer electronics company that heavily relies on memory, first squeezing margins and then forcing companies to raise prices for consumers.

Bloomberg Markets Live reporter Michael Ball warned the other week that the memory crunch is becoming yet another bottleneck for AI data center buildouts.

Last week, Goldman analyst Katherine Murphy told clients that a "structural supply crunch in the memory market" will "put constraints on the availability of PCs and drive vendors to raise prices in order to protect thin margins."

Murphy forecast that shipments in 2026 will slide by about 12% year over year to 245 million units, with consumer PCs declining 15% year over year to 108 million units and commercial PCs down 9% year over year to 137 million units.

"As of March 2026, we expect PC unit shipments at DELL and HPQ will be down high single digits to low double digits year over year in C2026, with AAPL PC units up modestly year over year on new product launches, including the entry-level MacBook Neo," the analyst noted.

Murphy said the soaring DRAM and NAND component costs, which typically account for 20% of a PC build's total cost, will account for about 40% under the current pricing regime.

Professional subscribers can read much more about the memory crunch on our new Marketdesk.ai portal.