Samsung warns memory chip shortages will persist to at least 2028

Samsung Electronics says memory chip shortages will intensify through 2027 and won’t ease until at least 2028, citing long AI-related demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM). During its Q2 2026 earnings call (July 30), Executive Vice President Jaejune Kim warned that the constraint is not logistics but physics and capital-expenditure timelines. Building new fabs for HBM takes years and billions. HBM stacks multiple layers of DRAM vertically, making production far more complex than standard memory modules. Financially, Samsung’s semiconductor operating profit rose to 89.2 trillion won (about $61.7B), a more-than-250-fold jump year over year. Overall group operating profit was 89.5 trillion won, meaning the chip business drove nearly all earnings. Samsung also has multi-year supply agreements with the five largest global data-center operators, covering about two-thirds of its memory output. At the same time, its mobile division posted a 700 billion won quarterly loss—its first-ever deficit—because higher memory costs are raising Galaxy device prices and cooling consumer demand. Samsung’s shares initially jumped as much as 8.4% after the report, then closed down 0.7%. For traders, the key takeaway is that memory chip shortages are structural and tied to AI capex cycles. Even if consumer demand softens, production priorities may stay anchored to data centers through 2028.