Sound the alarm, DRAM shortage and memory crisis could last until 2030

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, the South Korean conglomerate that owns semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix, has said that the DRAM memory shortage and crisis will "persist" through 2030. As reported by The Korean Times, these comments were made at the recent NVIDIA GTC 2026 event in San Jose, California.

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"The shortage stems from a lack of wafer capacity, and securing additional wafers takes at least four to five years," Chey Tae-won said. Adding, "We expect the industry-wide supply shortfall to persist at over 20 percent through 2030." However, on the plus side, it sounds like SK Hynix plans to unveil new measures in the "near future" to stabilize DRAM prices.

In addition to this, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won reportedly said that even though SK Hynix is one of the dominant players in the HBM (high-bandwidth memory) market for data center and AI-focused GPUs, he and SK Hynix are keenly aware that purely focusing on the lucrative HBM market will adversely affect the consumer technology market that includes everything from smartphones to PCs.

The takeaway is that the semiconductor manufacturer won't be shelving its consumer-facing DRAM business to focus exclusively on HBM. As for how SK Hynix plans to stabilize DRAM prices across its entire portfolio, that remains to be seen, but either way, the memory crisis and shortage still appear to be, unfortunately, in their early stages. According to the report, building a new fab isn't on the cards.

As 2030 is four years away and it probably takes that long to spin up a new fab, SK Hynix isn't looking to expand its manufacturing capabilities overseas, unlike some other players in the space. "Building capacity outside Korea takes the same amount of time, regardless of location," Chey Tae-won said, confirming that SK Hynix will remain in South Korea. "Korea already has the infrastructure in place, allowing for a much faster response. That is why we are concentrating our efforts here."