Memory Is Generating Record Profits But Markets Punished It Anyway

In a single quarter, memory prices nearly doubled — and the crunch is only expected to worsen from here. AI’s relentless demand for chips is locking the industry into a historic shortage, with each new generation requiring more memory than the last. But strangely enough, the companies printing record profits are finding that good news only goes so far.

• DRAM, the memory powering every AI chip, is now running at nearly 80% margins — and those won’t compress until new factories come online in 2027–2028.
• As such, Samsung, SK Hynix, and MicronMU
  are on track for a combined ~$350B in earnings this year — with the former firm nearly posting a full-year’s profit in three months.

What goes up: Despite earnings that beat expectations, memory darlings Western DigitalWDC

and SandiskSNDK

swung violently after reporting. With the two respectively up nearly 900% and 3,350% in the past year, jittery markets have little tolerance for anything short of perfection — and the pressure is shifting downstream. To meet Wall Street’s expectations, those margins have to come from somewhere, and Apple’sAAPL

Tim Cook just warned it could be you.