Korean chipmakers set to unveil major US memory deals
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are preparing to announce large long-term memory chip supply agreements with leading US technology companies during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's visit to San Francisco, a senior presidential official said. Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom told reporters that "very large and meaningful numbers" would be disclosed, though he declined to reveal deal values ahead of company announcements. Kim described the trip as a "catalyst" that helped finalize long-running negotiations between Korean firms and their US counterparts, with global technology companies also expected to unveil strategic investments in Korean artificial intelligence data centers.
Korean AI summit and 'San Francisco AI Declaration'
Lee is set to attend an AI summit in San Francisco bringing together CEOs of four US technology firms — Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Broadcom's Hock Tan — alongside Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin. At the summit, Lee is scheduled to announce a "San Francisco AI Declaration" outlining Korea's plan to ensure stable supply of memory semiconductors essential for AI and to establish a second semiconductor cluster in the Honam region following the existing metropolitan cluster.
South Korea last month unveiled an investment plan worth at least $880 billion backed by Samsung, SK Group and Naver to expand chip production, build AI data centers and strengthen Korea's leadership in semiconductors and physical AI. A separate account described a "4,700 trillion won 'three mega projects'" framework tied to Lee's San Francisco visit. Officials said US tech companies account for 80 to 90 percent of underlying demand for Korean memory, and more than half of an initial roughly 8 gigawatts of AI data center capacity is expected to take concrete shape during the trip.
Chinese memory makers' rising market clout
China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) have moved from chronic losses to significant pricing power as the AI data center buildout transforms memory chips into one of the world's most sought-after products. CXMT has risen to become the world's fourth-biggest memory maker and is now powerful enough to dictate prices even to large customers such as Huawei, according to people familiar with the matter.
CXMT recently signed a five-year agreement with ByteDance, owner of TikTok, worth more than $7 billion, three people familiar with the arrangement said. CXMT is set to make its Shanghai stock market debut on Monday after pricing an $8.6 billion initial public offering, having erased a decade of losses in six months with first-quarter revenue of $7.5 billion — a 719 percent year-on-year increase. YMTC entered the South Korean market in June by launching a consumer memory storage brand, exploiting a gap left by Samsung, SK hynix and Micron as those firms shift to more advanced chips. Some YMTC executives are pushing internally for a 1 trillion yuan (about $148 billion) valuation target ahead of its own planned listing.
US policy debate intensifies over CXMT and YMTC
The Chinese memory makers' growing grip on chip supply has put them on a collision course with Washington. The Pentagon has designated both CXMT and YMTC as Chinese military companies over their alleged role in China's military-civil fusion strategy, a charge they deny. YMTC is already on the US Entity List, restricting its access to US-origin suppliers, software and tools used in memory-chip production, and Congress is debating further restrictions on chipmaking equipment.
The Trump administration is divided on whether to crack down on the two firms, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Apple has argued it needs Chinese memory and sought assurances that CXMT will not be added to the Entity List, while CXMT was approved by a US interagency committee last year for addition to the trade blacklist but officials have held off. Micron, the Chinese firms' main Western competitor, has pushed US lawmakers to enact further restrictions on CXMT and YMTC, including curbing their access to chipmaking equipment.
Gigabyte validates CXMT memory for desktop platforms
Motherboard vendor Gigabyte has announced official support for CXMT DDR5 memory on both AMD Socket AM5 and Intel LGA 1851 platforms, with validated speeds of up to 8200 MT/s on select boards. The company published a CPU-Z screenshot showing a pair of 16GB Lexar modules equipped with CXMT chips hitting 8200 MT/s with a CAS latency of 40 cycles on a B850M FORCE motherboard, alongside an AIDA64 latency of 65.4 nanoseconds using a Ryzen 5 8600G. Modules with 16-gigabit and 24-gigabit CXMT dies are supported, enabling 16GB and 24GB single-rank or 32GB and 48GB dual-rank configurations.
MSI had previously promoted BIOS optimizations for CXMT memory, but Gigabyte's announcement is the first to advertise the higher 8200 MT/s validation. CXMT is not on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, so its parts are not formally banned, though the company was once again designated a Chinese military company by the Department of Defense after being briefly removed from the 1260H list in February.
Industry sees structural memory shortage ahead
ADATA Chairman Chen Li-bai has forecast that memory supply shortages will persist for another decade, dismissing market talk of an AI investment bubble as premature. "To talk about a real bubble, it would have to be after 2030," he said, adding that demand for AI computing capability, memory chips and power continues to exceed market forecasts. Chen said new memory demand will rise rapidly beyond AI data centers to include robots, autonomous vehicles, unmanned factories, low-Earth-orbit satellites and related ground infrastructure.
According to market research firm 3D Center, DDR5 memory kit prices in the German market rose 7 percent in July to a record high, jumping 448 percent year-on-year. With Samsung, SK hynix and Micron expanding capacity, ADATA expects a step-by-step investment approach that watches demand to take hold across the industry.
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