The memory stock cycle of boom-bust-repeat is over, executives say
AI spending blitz has the memory industry dancing to a new tune.
shares Micron It increased by over 370% compared to last year. sandiskListed in February last year alone, it is up more than 1100%.
For decades, memory stocks were stuck in a trader’s game of a boom-bust-repeat pattern, but managers now say artificial intelligence has structurally broken the old cycle and prices show no signs of decline.
“We will continue to increase prices because the industry will continue to increase prices.” HPE CEO Antonio Neri told CNBC. “There just isn’t enough supply to meet the demand.”
Administrator at hard disk manufacturer Seagate He reminisced to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday. price increases It will likely become the “new normal” within the next few years.
South Korea’s SK HynixOne of the world’s largest memory manufacturers tells CNBC that the entire memory industry is undergoing structural change.
“The company’s customers, including hyperscalers, are increasingly choosing long-term contracts over the one-year deals that have been more common in the past,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Micron told CNBC that customers are now more than willing to sign long-term supply agreements to keep them in the memory for years to come.
broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in the company’s earnings call last week that supply remains stable through 2028.
Today’s AI workloads require an architecture that is fundamentally different and much more memory intensive than the architectures the industry has previously developed to support.
Meta It announced a new in-house AI chip on Wednesday, also noting concerns about access to the high-bandwidth memory it needs.
“We are definitely concerned about the HBM supply,” Meta Vice President of Engineering Yee Jiun Song told CNBC. “But we think we’ve secured our supply for what we plan to build.”
As hyperscalers eliminate consumer supply and meaningful relief won’t come until 2027 at the earliest, the development of artificial intelligence may have propelled memory into a new era.
