Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracker | Storage costs significantly increased, overseas tech giants collectively raise prices, institutions warn: global memory shortage may last until 2027 (with concept stocks)

According to CCTV Finance, the sudden surge in demand for AI computing power has led to a significant increase in storage chip prices, with upstream price pressures being transmitted downstream to end products. Recently, Amazon raised the prices of several hardware products. Before Amazon's price hike, tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Dell had collectively increased their product prices and reduced standard memory configurations to cope with the cost pressure resulting from the sharp rise in storage chip prices. Market research firm IDC previously warned that the global memory shortage could continue until 2027, with industry forecasts indicating that storage chip prices may gradually decline and stabilize after peaking in 2028. Recently, Amazon announced price increases for multiple hardware products, including the smart speaker Echo, e-reader Kindle, and router brand Eero, with some products seeing price hikes of up to 60%. For instance, the price of the 16GB Kindle rose from $109.99 to $149.99; the basic Echo Dot increased from $49.99 to $79.99, marking the highest price increase at 60%. In response to the price hike, Amazon explained that the consumer electronics industry is currently facing significant increases in the costs of memory and storage components. The company has absorbed some of the cost pressures internally before ultimately deciding to adjust the prices of all its products. Additionally, Amazon mentioned that it would periodically launch promotional activities over the next year to provide discounts to consumers. In the broader consumer electronics industry, Amazon is not the first company to adjust prices due to rising storage costs. Previously, Apple and Microsoft had already increased the prices of some hardware products due to cost pressures from storage components. On August 24, renowned tech journalist Mark Gurman reported that Apple plans to raise the prices of the iPhone 18 series, which will be released in September, as tight memory and chip supply have pushed up the overall material costs of the devices, making price increases nearly inevitable. On August 25, TrendForce released a report forecasting that global capital expenditure by tech giants on AI infrastructure equipment is expected to reach $1.383 trillion next year, with nearly 70% of AI infrastructure investment costs flowing into DRAM and NAND flash memory. Analysts indicated that the surge in memory capacity demand for AI servers, coupled with soaring chip prices, has shifted the competitive focus of the global AI industry from past GPU battles to a fierce competition for storage procurement. TrendForce data shows that the contract price for server DRAM used in global AI servers increased by 64% by the second half of 2025, while this year alone it is expected to rise by about 270%; enterprise-class SSDs used for Beijing Vastdata Technology storage saw prices increase by 35% in the second half of last year, with the cumulative increase expected to reach 235% this year. TrendForce predicts: "Before 2027, the overall contract price of storage chips will remain at a high level." High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) prices are also on an upward trend. Analysts state: "Although the space for price increases in general memory is limited after signing long-term supply agreements in the second quarter of this year, the severe supply shortage may lead to HBM price increases of 70%-140% next year." Guotai Haitong released a research report stating that the storage industry has transitioned from being a beneficiary of AI computing power investments to a key bottleneck constraining AI infrastructure, with structural shortages driven by AI demand permeating the entire industry chain, deepening the supply-demand gap. In terms of pricing, the slower growth in contract prices in Q3 2026 is not a signal of a peak in the cycle, and the upward price trend is expected to continue until 2027; long-term agreements do not limit the potential for price increases, but rather make price trends more predictable, exchanging short-term price elasticity for long-term profitability and cash flow visibility. The industry's focus is expected to shift from quarterly price/profit elasticity to high profitability sustainability over multiple years and capital return levels supported by high cash flow creation capability, driving the industry's valuation upward. On the production side, the report believes that supply discipline is still underestimated by the market; most of the new capital expenditures of the original manufacturers are directed toward new plant and cleanroom construction, with expansion plans progressing gradually, resulting in limited actual new capacity in 2026-2027. Structurally, the industry has fully anticipated weak end-consumer demand, while demand from AI data centers remains strong; therefore, the marginal impact of traditional consumer terminals on the industry's supply-demand dynamics is decreasing, which will not alter the trend of supply-demand imbalance and moderate price increases. Tianfeng points out that the current improvement in storage market conditions is not solely driven by restocking among individual terminals but is the result of changes in demand structure, rational supply expansion, and the recovery of inventory cycles across the industry chain. The ongoing construction of AI computing power further elevates the importance of high-end storage demand. According to Omdia, the proportion of DRAM server demand is expected to rise from 50% in 2025 to 71% by 2030; according to Frost & Sullivan, the global storage market size for AI edge devices is expected to grow from $39.5 billion in 2025 to $300.8 billion in 2030. On the supply side, the three major original manufacturers' capital expenditure proportions have been fluctuating between 23% to 35% recently, without aggressive expansions, with some capacity prioritized for high-margin products like HBM and high-capacity enterprise SSDs. In the context of ongoing demand structure upgrades and existing supply constraints, the central price of storage is expected to receive fundamental support, and attention should be paid to storage modules, storage controller chips, packaging and testing, as well as upstream equipment materials. Related stocks: Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981): The core products of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation cover multiple fields, including logic chips, storage chips, and analog chips. In mid to late August, DBS released a report stating that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981) recorded revenue of $3.01 billion in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 36%, up 20% from the previous quarter, exceeding market expectations by 5%; gross margin was 25.3%, far exceeding market expectations by about 4 percentage points, benefiting from rising average prices, improved capacity utilization, and better product mix. DBS raised its profit forecasts for SMIC from 2026 to 2028 between 13.4% and 16.5%, increasing the target price from HKD 90 to HKD 96, maintaining a "buy" rating. The management expects revenue to grow by 2% to 4% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter, with a year-on-year median increase of about 30%, roughly in line with market expectations; the gross margin guidance is between 26% and 28%, exceeding market expectations by about 4.3 percentage points. Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor (01347): Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor (01347) reported mid-year results for 2026, with sales revenue of approximately $1.378 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.5%; shipment volume increased by 17.9% year-on-year, reaching a record high. Gross profit was $204.5 million, up 83.2% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent company's shareholders was $59.568 million, a year-on-year increase of 409.0%. The announcement stated that the record high in sales revenue was primarily due to the increase in the number of wafers shipped and the rise in average selling price. The growth in gross profit was mainly due to the increase in average selling price and cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, partially offset by rising depreciation costs. Regarding capacity construction, as of June 30, 2026, all process equipment required for the Wuxi Phase II Project (Fab 9) with 83K capacity has been moved in, and installation and debugging are underway, with plans to achieve the planned capacity target by the end of the third quarter. Meanwhile, the company is also advancing the acquisition of a 97.5% stake in Huali Microelectronics, which was approved in mid-June, and is expected to complete the transaction in the third quarter. After the integration of Huali Microelectronics, the company will further enhance its 12-inch wafer foundry capacity, and the complementary advantages of the two parties' process platforms will allow for a wider range of application scenarios and more complete technical specifications for foundry and supporting services, providing customers with a diverse array of technical solutions and enriching the product line. GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (03986): The company's storage chip products have seen both volume and price increases, significantly boosting profitability. In the first half of 2026, storage chips generated revenue of 9.827 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 245.44%, with a gross margin of 67.57%, driven by rapid growth in niche DRAM and SLC NAND Flash. MCU products benefited from demand in the industrial, consumer, and automotive sectors, achieving good growth in shipment scale. In terms of performance, the company achieved operating revenue of 11.566 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 178.67%; net profit attributable to the parent was 6.857 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1091.50%. Montage Technology (06809): As a leader in the memory interconnect chip market, Montage Technology is transitioning from a memory interconnect leader to a platform interconnect chip company. In the context of the AI era, the company has formed a rich product matrix by focusing on its key high-speed interconnect chips that bridge computing power and storage, occupying a leading position in the global market. PCle Retimer products have entered a volume production phase, and the company is extending its path towards the higher-value PCle Switch domain, potentially opening up new growth opportunities. As AI moves from model training to inference, particularly with the development of AI agents, the demand for server CPUs is continuously rising, making the company a major beneficiary of the strong demand for CPUs.