Rising demand for AI accelerators and data centers continues to push memory prices and supplier revenues to record highs. In the third quarter of 2026, DRAM market revenue grew 369% year-on-year.
According to the latest Counterpoint Research Q3 2026 Global Memory Market Tracker, Samsung held the top position in the DRAM market with a 38% share. SK Hynix posted stronger sequential growth, with revenue up more than 40% quarter-on-quarter, helping it recover some of the market share it lost earlier in the year. Micron (MU.US) also performed well on the back of AI data center memory demand, though its growth rate lagged behind Samsung and SK Hynix. Meanwhile, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) saw its market share slip from 10% in the second quarter to 9% in the third quarter. As competitors begin shipping higher-priced HBM4 products from the fourth quarter onward, ChangXin Memory Technologies may continue to face pressure on its market share.
Q3 2026 DRAM Revenue Market Share
Jeongku Choi, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said: "The market is currently in a price-driven supercycle, not a volume-driven one. DRAM bit shipments grew only about 4% this quarter, but market revenue has approached $200 billion, roughly five times the level of the same period last year. AI has transformed memory from a commodity into a scarce, high-value resource. Buyers are now competing for supply security rather than haggling over prices. With prices continuing to rise, suppliers are expected to set new profit records next quarter."
The rise in DRAM average selling prices (ASP) was the main driver of third-quarter growth. Although the pace of price increases has slowed compared with the rapid rise in the first half of the year, DRAM ASP still reached $1.9 per Gb, further boosting overall DRAM revenue.
MS Hwang, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said: "Each generation of HBM reshapes the competitive landscape. SK Hynix previously dominated the HBM3E market, but its growth momentum has slowed; while Samsung's HBM4 products have gained broad customer recognition. With profitability improving this year, Samsung is expected to rise to the top spot in the HBM market next year."
MS Hwang added: "Memory prices are expected to remain strong next year. HBM prices, which have lagged conventional DRAM this year, are catching up. Long-term agreements (LTAs) are providing price support, and major new wafer fabs will not come online before 2028, so supply will remain tight. In the short term, LTA terms may lead to differences in supplier performance, but over the long term, the overall trend will be uniformly upward."
In terms of product mix, although HBM revenue nearly doubled, its share of total DRAM revenue declined. This is mainly because conventional DRAM (DDR/LPDDR) grew faster. Brady Wang, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said: "The rise of Agentic AI is driving significant growth in conventional DRAM demand. According to our cloud AI compute tracking data, the GPU-to-CPU configuration ratio has narrowed sharply from 4:1 to 2:1, with a trend toward further convergence to 1:1. For example, in Nvidia's Vera Rubin rack, the DRAM capacity per CPU socket has increased nearly threefold compared with the previous generation, reaching 1.5TB. Strong demand has pushed DDR and LPDDR ASPs to historic highs, driving their revenues up 500% and nearly 400% year-on-year respectively. We have observed a significant increase in server CPU usage, which in turn drives higher conventional DRAM consumption. This trend is expected to further push up DRAM ASP per Gb next year while putting some pressure on edge markets."
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