Samsung Electronics, SK hynix to benefit further from AI memory bottleneck

Memory chips remain the key bottleneck in the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix still positioned as strong beneficiaries of the cycle, Sanjeev Rana, head of Korea research at CLSA, said Tuesday. During a press briefing on the sidelines of the CITIC CLSA Northeast Asia Forum held at Conrad Seoul, Rana noted that over the past 10 years, memory chips’ contribution to semiconductor industry revenue has jumped from 28 percent to 52 percent. “It’s all driven by global AI infrastructure spending. Companies are looking to expand capacity across foundry, advanced packaging, production equipment, interconnects and other areas,” Rana said. “But these bottlenecks are still likely to persist for the next several years and are unlikely to go away anytime soon.” According to CLSA, global semiconductor industry revenue is expected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2030, up 80 percent year-on-year, with the majority — approximately $1.4 trillion — coming from the memory chip sector. Rana said that as AI models grow, limitations on memory bandwidth in