According to Korean media outlet News Daily, Samsung Electronics has confirmed that it has raised contract prices for DRAM by as much as 15-30% and mobile NAND flash by roughly 5-10%, in response to a noticeably tighter supply/demand balance. Samsung reportedly notified major customers ahead of fourth-quarter contracting, following a market shift, where older-generation parts are being phased down while demand from hyperscale cloud operators and device makers racing to ship AI-enabled PCs and flagship phones has surged. Additionally, Samsung's rivals such as SK Hynix and Micron have signaled similar adjustments, with several suppliers notifying clients of double-digit increases and temporary limits on new quotes. For buyers, the result is immediate price pressure across server and mobile storage purchases, while for vendors, it is a tactical reprioritization of wafer capacity toward higher-margin, next-generation product lines.

Samsung's DRAM LPDDR4X, LPDDR5, and LPDDR5X families, as well as embedded NAND formats such as eMMC and UFS, are among those experiencing contract uplifts. Meanwhile, shortages in commodity DDR4 briefly pushed spot quotes sharply higher. Memory makers have redirected capacity to DDR5 and HBM, prioritizing HBM orders used by AI accelerators, tightening the supply of consumer-focused DRAM. Samsung, which retains roughly a third of global DRAM and NAND market share, is accelerating development of next-generation LPDDR6 even as it tweaks production schedules for legacy nodes. The pricing reset is expected to materially improve semiconductor division margins in the near term, cushioning against earlier cyclical weakness. For customers, it will force revisions to inventory planning and, likely, a renewed focus on design choices for price/performance.