Overview
- A federal class action filed on June 25, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California names Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron and is now assigned to Judge Noel Wise with no responses filed so far.
- The complaint alleges the three companies coordinated since late 2022 to cut production of commodity DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM and redirect capacity to high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI data centers.
- Plaintiffs claim those moves inflated DRAM prices by roughly 700% over four years, a figure the complaint presents as alleged damages rather than proven fact.
- The suit invokes Section 1 of the Sherman Act and seeks injunctive relief plus trebled damages if coordination is proven, but defendants are likely to argue the shifts were independent commercial choices driven by HBM demand, long customer contracts and capital costs.
- Observers note the three firms control most DRAM output and that long fab lead times and planned capacity additions through 2027–2028 mean any market correction would be slow even if the court finds misconduct, while higher DRAM costs have already filtered into pricier consoles, PCs and compute infrastructure.