Memory Chipmakers Stocks Surge!
According to the latest reports on January 7, global memory chip shortages are driving sharp price increases across the market. In the first quarter of 2026, server DRAM prices are expected to rise 60–70%, general-purpose DRAM could increase 55–60%, and NAND Flash is projected to climb 33–38%. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang highlighted in a recent interview that AI-driven demand has created an "unserved market" in memory chips, signaling massive growth potential.
Huang emphasized that the growth in AI-related memory needs has already outpaced current infrastructure capabilities. "This unserved market is likely to become the world's largest memory market, essentially supporting the memory requirements for global AI operations," he said. He also noted that the scale of context memory, token memory, and KV Cache handled today far exceeds what traditional storage systems can accommodate.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra also expects strong market performance to continue through 2027, fueled by ongoing supply shortages and high demand for memory chips in AI applications. He predicts that memory supply will remain tight even beyond 2026.
Following these developments, U.S. stock markets on January 6 saw significant gains among memory chip companies. SanDisk surged 27.56% to a record closing of $349.63 per share, Micron rose 10.02%, and Western Digital climbed 16.77%.
Lynx Equity analyst KC Rajkumar noted in a January 6 research report that surveys conducted in Asia show the market currently meets less than 50% of bit demand, suggesting further potential increases in NAND Flash prices. Huang's introduction of NVIDIA's Rubin platform storage solution, the KV Cache—providing 16GB flash per GPU—also contributed to SanDisk's stock surge.
Notably, Seagate shares jumped 14% on January 6 to a historic closing of $330.42 per share, reflecting a 268.77% gain over the past 12 months. Morgan Stanley raised Seagate's target price from $270 to $337 and reaffirmed an "Overweight" rating, while Cantor Fitzgerald set an aggressive $400 target. Analysts attribute the bullish outlook to surging AI-driven demand for hard drives and an improving industry supply-demand balance.
Seagate's recent earnings also supported its stock performance. For Q1 of fiscal 2026 (ending October 3, 2025), revenue grew 21% year-over-year to $2.63 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of $2.55 billion, and adjusted EPS reached $2.61, up 65% from the prior year and exceeding the forecast of $2.37.
