Silicon Motion CEO Warns DRAM and SSD Shortages Could Stretch Into 2028 as AI Demand Keeps Tightening Supply
The memory market may be heading into a much longer squeeze than many expected. According to reporting from Economic Daily Korea, Silicon Motion Chief Executive Chia Chang Gou says tight supply conditions for DRAM and NAND Flash will be difficult to resolve in the near term, with NAND shortages potentially lasting until 2028 and memory prices expected to continue rising through the second half of this year. The report says the shift of AI investment from training toward inference is now driving simultaneous demand growth for both memory and storage, creating a more persistent supply bottleneck across the ecosystem.
That timeline matters because it suggests the industry is moving beyond a short cycle imbalance and into a longer structural shortage. Gou reportedly said that even if memory makers launch new expansion plans now, those investments cannot translate into meaningful supply fast enough to close the gap. The report states that it takes at least 2 to 3 years to secure land, build clean rooms, install equipment, tune yields, and bring new output into effective production, while equipment lead times alone can stretch from 1 year to 1.5 years. That means the market cannot quickly manufacture its way out of the current crunch.
The pressure is being amplified by the way AI customers are behaving. According to the same report, North American cloud providers continue to invest heavily in AI infrastructure and are increasingly using long term contracts and prepayments to lock in future memory supply. That dynamic makes the market even tighter for everyone else, because large buyers with capital and visibility are moving early to secure allocation before additional gigawatt scale AI data center projects come online.
Silicon Motion’s view carries weight because the company sits close to the storage side of the market as a major controller supplier for both enterprise and consumer SSDs. Gou’s comments suggest that NAND is no longer only being shaped by traditional PC and smartphone demand cycles, but also by the storage needs of AI inference, which is becoming a much larger commercial phase of the AI rollout. In practical terms, that means the same industry that already had to deal with HBM and server DRAM pressure is now also facing stronger structural demand for flash storage.
The pricing outlook is also concerning for consumers and system vendors. Gou reportedly said memory prices should continue moving upward in the second half of the year, even if the pace of increase is slower than in the first half. He also warned that surging prices could disrupt industry balance, with some phone and PC makers already struggling to absorb the higher component costs. Larger brands with stronger procurement power may be better positioned to handle the market, which could widen the competitive gap across consumer electronics.
This new 2028 warning also pushes the memory narrative further than earlier market expectations. A separate earlier Economic Daily report cited expectations that DRAM and NAND tightness would remain severe through 2027 because AI demand was diverting more industry capacity toward higher value server products and HBM. Gou’s latest comments now suggest the squeeze may last even longer, especially on the NAND side, as the inference era broadens demand across both storage and memory at the same time.
The broader takeaway is clear. The memory shortage is no longer just a high end AI server story. It is becoming a multi year supply issue that affects controllers, SSDs, mainstream DRAM, pricing power, and downstream device makers. If Silicon Motion’s view proves correct, the market could remain tight well into 2028, with rising prices and supply prioritization continuing to reshape both enterprise and consumer hardware planning.
Do you think the industry can meaningfully expand memory and SSD supply before 2028, or are we entering a longer era where AI permanently reshapes storage pricing and availability?
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