TECH NEWS – “DRAM Beggars”: major US tech companies are sending teams to Seoul to secure DRAM supply no matter the price. Competition has reportedly gotten so intense that hotels near Samsung and SK Hynix headquarters are being booked out by procurement crews.
Several US tech giants have reportedly flown procurement teams to Seoul to lock down DRAM supply, triggering fierce competition on the ground. Industry insiders are even calling them “DRAM beggars,” as hotels around Samsung and SK Hynix HQs continue to fill up. The goal is simple: secure as much DRAM as possible before prices climb even further.
Over the last few months, memory supply has skyrocketed in both value and cost. This has already rattled the gaming market, and similar brutal price hikes are expected to hit GPUs soon, mirroring what has happened with RAM kits. The crisis escalated as tech giants pushed AI initiatives to extreme levels, and the situation continues to worsen.
A new report claims that US companies such as Google and Microsoft are now flying procurement officers to Seoul to secure dwindling DRAM inventories regardless of price. That’s why insiders have branded these teams “DRAM beggars.” The report suggests Silicon Valley is becoming increasingly desperate to obtain as much DRAM as it can at any cost before the shortage deepens further. And that’s yet another negative signal for an already strained gaming industry.
The report says US tech giants are scrambling to secure as much DRAM as possible. It adds that hotels in the Pangyo and Pyeongtaek regions are filling up with teams trying to negotiate supply directly near Samsung and SK Hynix headquarters. These two South Korean manufacturers control a major share of the global DRAM supply chain, after all. In Q1 negotiations, both Samsung and SK Hynix reportedly demanded 50% to 60% higher prices for server DRAM compared to the previous quarter.
Driven by booming DRAM sales, Samsung Electronics is also said to have recorded its first-ever quarterly operating profit above 20 trillion KRW. According to Chosun, the average fixed DRAM transaction price surged from $1.40 (DDR4 8GB) in January last year to $9.30 in December. But the tech giants appear focused on locking in volume now, before memory gets even more expensive down the line.
DRAM Manufacturers
Micron has already exited the consumer market, making the DRAM crisis even more severe. At the same time, multiple DRAM makers are ramping up production – including SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung – in an effort to keep up with accelerating global demand. Those expanded supplies could eventually offer some relief to gamers, though likely only years from now.
Source: tech4gamers
