Micron: DRAM Shortage Likely to Last Until 2028

The global DRAM market remains under heavy pressure, with supply constraints continuing to tighten. Micron's Vice President of Marketing for Mobile and Client Business, Christopher Moore, recently said that despite large-scale investments in new manufacturing capacity, memory shortages are likely to persist until at least 2028.

Moore explained that Micron's new wafer fab in Idaho, USA, has moved its production start forward to mid-2027. However, real output growth will take time, as equipment installation, process tuning, and customer product validation must be completed before capacity can be fully utilized.

Addressing reports that Micron is stepping back from its Crucial consumer retail brand, Moore clarified that the company is not exiting the consumer memory market. Micron continues to support mainstream PC brands worldwide through OEM channels, ensuring consumer devices still have access to its memory technology.

According to Moore, today's memory shortage is an industry-wide challenge rather than a company-specific issue. Rapid growth in AI workloads has significantly reshaped demand patterns, with data centers now accounting for roughly 50% to 60% of total memory demand, up from 30% to 40% in previous years. This shift has created a widespread capacity gap across the global memory industry.

At the same time, customers are requesting a broader range of memory capacities, which adds complexity to manufacturing. Moore noted that when clients require multiple configurations such as 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB modules, production lines must be adjusted accordingly, temporarily reducing output. To address this, Micron is working to streamline wafer product specifications to improve manufacturing efficiency and speed up capacity ramp-up.