Samsung Warns AI Memory Shortages Could Worsen Through 2028
Samsung Electronics expects memory-chip supply constraints to worsen in 2027 and continue into 2028 as AI infrastructure spending and agentic-AI adoption keep server demand ahead of available capacity.
Why it matters: A prolonged memory shortage would affect accelerator availability, cloud capacity, server pricing and the pace at which enterprises can deploy larger AI systems.
Samsung Electronics expects the global memory-chip shortage to become more severe in 2027 and continue into 2028 as artificial-intelligence infrastructure consumes increasing amounts of high-performance memory.
The company said demand that could not be fulfilled during 2026 is already being pushed into next year, adding further pressure to a constrained supply chain. Samsung expects robust server demand as technology companies expand AI data centers and deploy more agentic-AI systems.
Samsung's semiconductor division generated 89.2 trillion won in second-quarter operating profit, more than 250 times its result from a year earlier. The company reported consolidated operating profit of 89.5 trillion won on revenue of 171.5 trillion won.
The results reinforce the importance of memory as a bottleneck in the AI supply chain. Advanced accelerators depend on high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM to move model data quickly enough to keep expensive processors utilized.
The boom is also creating pressure elsewhere inside Samsung. Higher memory prices benefited the chip division but contributed to a 700 billion won loss in the mobile business, its first quarterly deficit. Samsung shares rose 8% after the earnings call.
The outlook suggests that the next phase of the AI race may be constrained as much by memory availability as by access to accelerators, electricity or data-center capacity.