Automakers, retailers warn memory chip shortage impacting prices - CNA

Recent warnings from groups representing automakers, retailers, and electronics firms highlight how the surge in demand for memory chips to power AI data centers is driving up prices and disrupting cr... Read original →

The insatiable demand from AI data centers for HBM is cannibalizing conventional DRAM and NAND capacity, creating a critical technology stack imbalance. Automotive and consumer electronics face cost surges or shipment delays as foundries prioritize NVIDIA and Arm-based AI chips on advanced nodes like 3nm—squeezing out mature-node MCUs. Despite U.S. CHIPS Act subsidies to Micron, domestic capacity won’t meaningfully ramp for 18+ months. Samsung and SK Hynix are capitalizing by accelerating HBM3E qualification and raising prices, while TSMC (Taiwan, China) deepens AI client lock-in via CoWoS packaging. Over the next 12–24 months, low-end smartphones and industrial controllers will endure chronic shortages, forcing supply chain realignment: automakers may pivot to RISC-V to reduce memory dependency, and the U.S. could restrict HBM exports under national security pretexts, accelerating semiconductor bloc formation.