U.S. tech giants to face production delays as memory supply shortage takes hold

Laptops are on display at a large supermarket in Seoul on Jan. 25 as forecasts of a rise in memory prices sweep the IT industry. [YONHAP]

 
Big U.S. tech companies like Nvidia, Apple and Qualcomm are all facing the same, critical conundrum: having enough production capacity to meet soaring demand but not enough memory chips. The key components of electrical devices are causing delays in the industry.
 
As high bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers rapidly takes up more space on semiconductor production lines, shortages of conventional memory chips have moved beyond a phase of simple price increases, known as “chipflation.”
 

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Delays in the production of finished goods have set in as companies struggle to secure general-purpose memory for smartphones and laptops, making memory supply a key variable that now determines corporate performance.
 
 
Qualcomm: ‘Performance hinges on memory supply’
 
Shares of U.S. semiconductor company Qualcomm plunged 8.46 percent on the Nasdaq market from the previous session on Thursday.
 
After the market closed on Wednesday, Qualcomm projected revenue for the second quarter of the fiscal year, covering January to March this year, at between $10.2 billion and $11 billion.
 
This fell short of market expectations of $11.11 billion. Qualcomm, which produces and supplies application processors that serve as the brains of smartphones, forecast that revenue from its handset segment in the second quarter would decline 13 percent from a year earlier.
 

Qualcomm's integrated circuit products are seen on display during the CES 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas on Jan. 7. [NEWS1]

 
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the cause was a shortage of memory.
 
“It is 100 percent related to memory,” Amon said during an earnings call on Thursday. “I’ll say the macroeconomic indicators has been strong. We look at the handset demand has been strong. I think because of our licensing business, we have a good understanding of the overall demand.”
 
“Unfortunately, I think what we saw in Q1 as we guide to Q2 is 100 percent sized by the availability of memory,” Amon added.
 

Apple CEO Tim Cook, second from left, President and CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang, center, and European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde are seen ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks at the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Huang and Cook report shortages
 
The memory shortage has also affected Nvidia. IT outlet The Information reported on Friday that Nvidia had put its plans to launch the GeForce RTX 50 Super series of gaming graphics processing units on hold due to a lack of memory chips.
 
The outlet added that the production schedule for the next-generation gaming GPU, the RTX 60 series, which had been slated for mass production at the end of 2027, could also be pushed back.
 
An Nvidia official dismissed the report as “unverified rumors,” but given that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said that memory chip demand exceeds supply this year and that the entire supply chain is likely to face difficulties, analysts say the company will concentrate its limited memory resources on AI servers.
 
Apple CEO Tim Cook also echoed the same worries at a recent earnings announcement, saying that the impact of rising memory prices was minimal in the fourth quarter last year, but the ripple effects will be much greater starting from January to March this year.
 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, front row fourth from left, poses for a group photo at a dinner he hosted with Taiwan's tech CEOs in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 31. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
 
Will China reap spillover gains?
 
As a result, the value of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, two pillars of the memory supply chain, has been surging.
 
Nvidia has reportedly asked Samsung Electronics to accelerate the supply of HBM4, the sixth generation of high bandwidth memory, even though quality testing has not yet been completed, according to industry sources.
 
Some clients are said to be signing contracts using a post-settlement method, in which additional costs are adjusted later to account for daily increases in memory prices.
 

SK hynix's next-generation, high-bandwidth memory chips are displayed at the 27th Semiconductor Exhibition held at Coex in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Oct. 22, 2025. [YONHAP]

 
Global PC makers facing urgent shortages are even turning to Chinese-made DRAM, which is relatively more available.
 
Japanese outlet Nikkei reported on Friday that U.S. PC makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard, as well as Taiwan’s Asus, are conducting verification processes to source DRAM from Chinese semiconductor company ChangXin Memory Technologies.
 
The fact that this is happening despite the U.S. government tightening export restrictions on Chinese semiconductor firms underscores just how severe the memory supply shortage has become.
 
“Because the memory shortage is so severe, Chinese DRAM manufacturers may temporarily enjoy some spillover benefits,” said Ahn Ki-hyun, executive vice president of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association.
 
“Considering U.S.-China relations and the competitiveness of Korean companies, the market share of Korean firms in the memory market is unlikely to be significantly shaken,” Ahn added.


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YI WOO-LIM [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]