Visitors line up to enter the keynote session at the “SK AI Summit 2025” in Seoul on November 3. (News1)

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Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., the world’s two-largest memory chipmakers, are expected to accelerate capacity expansion amid projections of a large-scale supply shortage in the memory chip market next year.

According to market tracker TrendForce on Monday, the price of DDR5 16Gb (2Gx8) DRAM reached $8.70 at the end of October, up 42.6 percent from $6.1 a month earlier. As memory manufacturers allocate more production capacity to high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM prices have continued to rise.

Taiwan’s DigiTimes also reported that major DRAM suppliers have stopped providing price quotes to customers to slow sales and better align with market prices.

With signs of a supply shortage growing, SK hynix is preparing to operate its new M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, next year, where it will begin HBM production.

During its earnings call Wednesday, the company said it has begun installing equipment at the M15X facility and plans to secure new capacity quickly. It added that next year’s investment will increase compared with this year.

Samsung Electronics is also expected to speed up its expansion plans. Construction has resumed at its P4 fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, which is expected to begin producing HBM4 chips next year.

In its earnings call last week, Samsung said it has significantly expanded its HBM production plan for 2026 and already secured customer demand. The company added that it is reviewing further capacity expansion as additional orders continue to come in.

Analysts expect the full-scale capacity race between the two chipmakers to begin after 2027. Samsung holds land next to its P4 line for the upcoming P5 fab and has secured additional space for up to two more plants, including P6.

SK hynix, meanwhile, has nearly completed infrastructure work for its semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and is building fabs slated to begin operations in 2027.

In a keynote speech at the SK AI Summit on Monday, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the Yongin cluster will start production in 2027 with a capacity equivalent to 24 M15X fabs.

In the memory sector, Samsung currently maintains a significant lead in production capacity over SK hynix and other rivals.

“Beyond the fabs already announced, companies are likely to unveil new investment plans for 2028 and 2029 by next year,” said Choe Jeong-dong, senior technical fellow at TechInsights Inc. “As the semiconductor market rebounds, more profitable companies are likely to announce additional expansion plans.”