Shares of semiconductor manufacturers began the new year with a surge, thanks to the world's largest makers of memory chips, which benefited from unrelenting demand for artificial intelligence technologies. They are betting that the AI boom that dominated 2025 will continue this year as well, and the first signs are proving them right. According to the CNBC server, memory chips are becoming the key engine of growth for the entire industry, as their shortage drives up prices and increases the profits of rocket manufacturers.
Shares of South Korean companies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, two of the world's largest memory makers, have risen by 11.5 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the year. American Micron has increased by nine percent this year. Memory is a key component of chips needed to train and run artificial intelligence models such as those from Nvidia and AMD. As tech giants continue to spend billions of dollars buying these chips and building data centers for AI, memory is a commodity in short supply. A special component called dynamic random access memory (DRAM), used in data centers for AI, saw a huge price jump in 2025. According to Counterpoint Research, memory prices are expected to rise another 40 percent by the second quarter of 2026. «The recent rally in the semiconductor segment has been driven primarily by the memory side of the market, not by logic chips. We see a combination of very strong demand for AI computing and relatively limited supply, especially for high-bandwidth memory, which is essential for training and running large AI model,» said Ben Barringer, Head of Technology Research at Quilter Cheviot.
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This is positive news for Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron as they are expected to be able to charge higher prices for their memory chips as demand shows no sign of weakening. The mood of investors is positive for these companies before the publication of the results for the fourth quarter on the following day, while analysts expect a significant increase in profits. According to LSEG estimates, Samsung should report a 140 percent increase in operating profit for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Micron's earnings per share are expected to rise more than 400 percent year over year in the quarter ending in December. The rally in shares of memory chip makers has spilled over into other parts of the supply chain, as investors expect the strong demand for AI seen in 2025 to continue this year. Shares in Intel were up seven percent, while TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor maker, was up 10 percent. Both companies, which make different types of semiconductors, should benefit from the continued AI boom. Meanwhile, Dutch firm ASML, which designs the key machines needed to make the world's most advanced chips, has seen its shares rise 14 percent this year. On Sunday, Bernstein raised its price target on ASML shares from 800 euros ($937) to 1,300 euros, representing a roughly 24 percent upside from the previous trading price. «ASML will benefit enormously from a wave of capacity expansions planned for 2026 and 2027,» Bernstein analysts wrote in a note on Sunday. They added that ASML will flow «from the upcoming DRAM supercycle». «Recent comments from SK Hynix hinting at a potential HBM supercycle have reinforced the idea that this is not just a short-term bounce, but a structural shift associated with the continued construction of AI infrastructure,» Barringer said. «This has helped improve sentiment across the sector, particularly for companies with increased exposure to AI-driven memory demand,» he concluded.