A proposed class-action lawsuit accuses Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of deliberately shifting production away from conventional DRAM toward high-margin AI memory chips. The lawsuit claims this caused DRAM prices to spike approximately 700% over four years.
The three companies collectively control over 90% of the global DRAM market. Samsung leads with 38% market share, followed by SK Hynix at 29% and Micron at 22%.
In the critical High Bandwidth Memory segment for AI, SK Hynix dominates with about 58% share. This concentration is fueling a severe shortage, with customers now reserving supplies years in advance.
The shortage directly impacts the production of advanced GPUs, creating bottlenecks for both centralized cloud providers and emerging decentralized compute networks.
This is not the first collusion allegation for the trio. They faced major fines in a price-fixing scandal in the mid-2000s. The current case could lead to forced production quotas or structural changes in the market.
China's CXMT is attempting to scale domestic memory production but remains constrained by export controls and technology gaps.