Memory executives expect RAM shortage to continue through 2028
Micron and Samsung executives expect the memory shortage to last through 2028 as AI HBM demand exceeds supply.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors that demand for Micron memory will exceed available supply for at least the next couple of years, with Samsung executives also expecting the shortage to last. Micron no longer sells consumer RAM; his comments cover business sales of high-bandwidth memory for AI and DRAM for servers, while capacity prioritization also limits consumer memory. Seventy-five percent of Micron’s 2027 output is already accounted for, and most current sales discussions concern 2028. New clean rooms are planned for 2028, but Mehrotra said wafer output ramps slowly and the shift from HBM3E toward more HBM4 and HBM4E, plus weaker node-transition productivity, will constrain supply growth. HBM demand is also surpassing demand for Micron’s DRAM.
- Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra expects demand to exceed supply for at least the next couple of years.
- About 75% of Micron’s 2027 memory output is already allocated; talks now focus on 2028.
- New clean rooms open in 2028, but production ramps gradually and HBM mix limits supply growth.
- AI and server memory is prioritized, tightening supply for consumer devices.
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Micron and Samsung executives this week said the memory shortage will continue for at least the next couple of years.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra expects demand for the firm’s memory to exceed its available supply over that period, he told investors last night.
Micron no longer sells consumer RAM, and Mehrotra’s statements refer to Micron’s business-to-business sales of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI and DRAM for servers. However, his comments also have implications for consumer devices. Manufacturing capacity is prioritizing memory for AI and servers, limiting the supply of memory manufactured for consumer devices.
“Overall, supply-demand environment is only getting tighter,” Mehrotra said, per a transcript from Seeking Alpha.
Micron plans to open new clean rooms for memory manufacturing in 2028, but Mehrotra expects supply to remain limited.
“Even after they are built, even after first wafer output, production ramps up only gradually in the clean rooms,” he said. “That’s just the nature of what it takes to bring up production, and with HBM going from 3E to a greater mix of 4 and 4E, and with the trade ratio that exists, that … creates headwinds with respect to supply growth. Node transitions of the future give less productivity gain per wafer as well.”
Seventy-five percent of Micron’s memory output for 2027 is already accounted for, and most of the company’s current memory sales discussions are about 2028, the CEO said. Additionally, demand for HBM is surpassing demand for Micron’s DRAM.
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/memory-supplies-are-only-getting-tighter-micron-ceo-says/