Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracking | Surge in AI Infrastructure Investment, Two Major Storage Chip Giants Face Inventory Crisis, Are Storage Chip Prices Set to Rise Again? (Including Concept Stocks)

Recently, KB Securities, a South Korean brokerage, analyzed that the storage chip market is facing a serious supply shortage as investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure expand at an unprecedented pace. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynixs inventory of storage chips has fallen to less than 10 days' supply, and next years actual available supply may be significantly insufficient. It is worth noting that OpenAI released its strongest model, GPT-6 Astra, last week. As Astra is aimed at more complex AI tasks, the market is increasingly betting that the continuous iteration of leading models will drive growth in computing power demand and support the demand for core hardware such as HBM, DRAM, and GPUs. Driving this expectation of shortage is the massive investment from the worlds largest cloud computing companies in the field of artificial intelligence. The importance of storage chips is rapidly increasing in this round of AI infrastructure investment. KB Securities expects that next year, AI-related investments from top global cloud service providers will reach $1.3 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 60%. The report also points out that the proportion of storage chips in AI infrastructure investment is expected to rise from 14% last year to 40% this year, and further to 57% next year. The rising costs of storage chips are significantly increasing costs for smartphones. According to the latest global smartphone price trend tracking report from Counterpoint Research, since 2026, the average retail price of globally sold smartphones has increased by 15%, with prices of some models nearly doubling. As costs for storage and other components continue to rise, OEM manufacturers are increasingly passing the higher costs onto consumers. Price-sensitive markets are facing greater pressure than markets with a higher proportion of high-end models, while the prices of newly released smartphones are also higher than those of previous-generation products, indicating an overall upward trend in global smartphone prices. Recently, multiple models from brands such as Huawei and Honor have synchronously raised their prices by amounts ranging from 200 to 1,000 yuan. This is not the first smartphone price increase this year. Similar to the concentrated price increases in March and July, the reason for this round of price hikes is the continual rise in memory prices, which has pressured manufacturers to adjust the prices of their available models again. I think Ill wait a bit for the new models coming in September, said one consumer. Journalists have observed that smartphone prices have already undergone multiple increases this year, leading to a decrease in the frequency of consumer upgrades and a growing sentiment of hesitation in smartphone consumption. It is noteworthy that South Korean media reported that Apple and Kioxia are negotiating a 3 to 5-year long-term NAND flash contract, potentially without a price cap. This marks a shift in Apples procurement logic from "price suppression + multiple sources" to "locked volume + long-term contracts." Industry insiders revealed that Apple may have recently signed a long-term supply agreement (LTA) for NAND flash supply. Currently, the trading counterpart, supply volume, and pricing terms remain undisclosed, but market participants speculate that the most likely supplier is Kioxia, a Japanese flash chip manufacturer that is already one of Apples core NAND suppliers. Analysis indicates that structural changes on the supply side will further amplify supply-demand contradictions. Storage chip manufacturers are reallocating significant capacities to produce the new generation of high-bandwidth memory chips, HBM4, which are specifically used for AI large model training. The wafer capacity consumed to produce HBM4, for the same storage capacity, is approximately three times that of traditional DRAM. DRAM is primarily used as the operating memory for smartphones and computers and is the core chip for consumer-grade memory. Given the limited total wafer capacity, the expansion of high-end storage chips like HBM4 will squeeze the capacity of ordinary storage chips, further increasing supply pressure in subsequent markets. Related Concept Stocks: Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981): Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981) announced its interim results for the period ending in mid-2026, achieving revenue of $5.511 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.7%; net profit attributable to the companys owners during the period was $677 million, a year-on-year increase of 111.1%; basic earnings per share stood at $0.08. The announcement stated that the revenue increase was primarily due to an increase in wafer sales, rising average prices, and changes in the product mix. The number of wafers sold (equivalent to 8-inch standard logic) increased by 14.9% from 4,682 thousand last year to 5,379 thousand this period. The average selling price (revenue from wafer sales divided by total number of wafers sold) this period was $966, compared to $903 last year. GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (03986): The companys storage chip products have seen a rise in both volume and price, significantly enhancing profitability. In the first half of 2026, the revenue from storage chips amounted to 9.827 billion yuan, increasing by 245.44% year-on-year, with a gross margin of 67.57%. The niche DRAM and SLC NAND Flash have experienced rapid growth year-on-year. The MCU products benefited from demand in the industrial, consumer, and automotive sectors, achieving good growth in shipment volume. 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 company was 6.857 billion yuan, an increase of 1,091.50% year-on-year. Montage Technology (06809): As a leader in the memory interconnect chip market, Montage Technology is transforming from a memory interconnect leader into a platform-type interconnect chip company. In the context of the AI era, the company has long focused on the key high-speed interconnect chip field between computing power and storage, forming a rich product matrix and occupying a leading position in the global market. PCle Retimer products have entered a ramp-up stage, and the company is extending along the same path into the higher value PCle Switch field, which is expected to open new growth opportunities. As AI shifts 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 robust demand for CPUs. Shenzhen Longsys Electronics (09976): According to its prospectus, Shenzhen Longsys Electronics is a leading independent brand semiconductor memory manufacturer globally. Leveraging the company's vertically integrated capabilities encompassing master control chip and storage chip design, firmware development, system-level packaging, and testing, Shenzhen Longsys Electronics designs, develops, manufactures, and sells a comprehensive range of storage products aimed at edge AI and traditional consumer, enterprise, and industrial-grade applications. According to data from Zhiqu Consulting, based on revenue from storage products in 2025, Shenzhen Longsys Electronics is the second largest independent semiconductor memory manufacturer among more than 100 market participants globally and the largest independent memory manufacturer among over 30 market participants in China. In 2025, Shenzhen Longsys Electronics is projected to capture 1.2% of the global storage products market, which is significant for independent memory companies given the large market size of the industry.