AI’s chip hunger could keep memory prices painfully high for years

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won said AI demand is keeping wafer supply tight and could leave the memory-chip shortage in place through 2030.

He said it may take four to five years to build enough new capacity, slowing any meaningful supply relief.

Heavy use of high-bandwidth memory in AI systems is also pushing up prices for DRAM and other memory products.

That could keep costs elevated for phones, laptops, GPUs, and other memory-heavy consumer devices for years.