ChipsJuly 12, 2026via Forbes Innovation
Memory Capacity Production Slowly Expanding To Meet AI Industry Demand
Why it matters
Memory is the forgotten bottleneck in AI infrastructure. While everyone watches GPU shipments, DRAM and NAND capacity constraints are quietly limiting training and inference at scale—and won't ease for 18+ months.
Key signals
- Five major memory manufacturers (Samsung, SK hynix, SanDisk, Kioxia, Micron) expanding DRAM and NAND capacity
- New facilities coming online late 2027–2028
- Memory production described as 'slowly expanding'—signals supply lag vs. AI demand growth
- DRAM and NAND flash are critical infrastructure for LLM training, inference, and vector DB workloads
The hook
2027–2028. That's when Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron finally catch up to AI's memory hunger.
Samsung, SK hynix, Sandisk, Kioxia and Micron report building out new DRAM and NAND flash manufacturing and packaging facilities coming on line in late 2027 or 2028.