SK Group chairman: memory chip prices 'abnormally high'

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said memory chip prices are abnormally high and the industry needs to boost production to bring costs down. He warned that failing to do so could let new entrants challenge incumbent leaders once demand eventually cools. SK is reportedly considering building a semiconductor plant in the US to expand supply.

Why it matters: Surging demand for AI accelerators and servers has been driving up DRAM and HBM (high-bandwidth memory) prices, raising costs across the entire AI hardware stack from GPUs to data centers. Paired with other supply-chain items tracked here, like TSMC's yield lead, ASML's possible EUV price hikes, and proposed bans on Chinese memory chips, this points to memory becoming a real bottleneck and geopolitical pressure point for AI infrastructure.