Overview
- A class-action complaint filed on June 25 accuses Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of coordinating cuts to commodity DRAM and the case is now assigned to Judge Noel Wise with no defendant responses yet.
- Plaintiffs say the three firms steered capacity from DDR3 and DDR4 into higher-priced high-bandwidth memory for AI, alleging roughly a 700% rise in DRAM prices and seeking treble damages under the Sherman Act.
- The three companies together supply about 90% of global DRAM, and industry reporting says HBM demand consumes far more wafer and packaging capacity per chip than commodity DRAM, tightening supply.
- South Korea on July 1 announced a government-backed $590 billion investment with Samsung and SK Hynix to build new fabs and related infrastructure aimed at doubling DRAM capacity over several years, though new output will take until the 2027–2028 period to meaningfully arrive.
- The legal fight will turn on proof of coordinated conduct rather than parallel business choices, and the case arrives against early-2000s precedents in which DRAM firms pleaded guilty to price fixing.