Media reports Samsung is set to hike prices of its best-selling chips by 20%
Tower cranes are seen at the construction site of the Samsung Electronics factory in Pyeongtaek on May 28, 2026. A U.S. listing may inject new capital to help finance this kind of new investment that Samsung needs to meet demand.
Samsung Electronics is reportedly proposing to raise the average selling price of its dynamic random access memory chips by 20%, another sign of the bottlenecks that are gripping the industry.
The report, from Zdnet Korea, comes ahead of Samsung's preliminary second-quarter results that are due on Tuesday.
Samsung shares (KR:005930) rose 3% on Monday.
Talk of increased prices comes just as Samsung's main competitor, SK Hynix (KR:000660) is about to list up to $29 billion of new equity via depositary receipts on Nasdaq on Friday. Tapping America's vast investment pool to fund capital expenditure is something that Samsung Electronics may also consider, according to domestic media.
U.S. rival Micron Technology $(MU)$ rose 2% in premarket trade, after skidding 6% on Thursday.
A U.S. listing offers the benefits, not just of new share capital to fund investment, but a way to diversify Samsung's investor base, boost liquidity and lead to inclusion in various benchmarks and exchange-traded funds. Samsung already has global depositary receipts (UK:SMSN) trading in London.
The rumored price increases from Samsung were prefigured in a note on the stock by Citi analyst Peter Lee last week. He lifted his ASP forecast for Samsung's 64-gigabyte high-end specialized stick of computer memory from $1586 to $1805 by the fourth quarter of 2026, an increase justified by accelerating AI central processing unit demand.
The jump in ASP has a major impact on Samsung's bottom line with Citi now predicting that Samsung's operating profit for 2026 will rise 20% and by 24% next year, giving Lee the justification for his target price increase from 460,000 won to 530,000 won, above Monday's close of 318,000 won.
The shares have now clocked up a 164% return so far this year.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) - Resilient Memory ASP Uptrend to Support Sustained Earnings Growth
Lenovo recently warned that high memory prices are the new normal and will never return to levels seen in 2025, as Apple recently announced price increased on its iPhones and MacBooks due to the memory-chip prices.
These increases come on top of steep prices already announced this year. The first quarter of 2026 witnessed a 90% spike, followed by another 50% increase in the second. Last week UBS' monthly update on the memory semis also highlighted "further pricing upside on long term agreement negotiations" simply because bit demand is forecast to expand by 36% in 2027 while supply will only grow at 19%.
Adjusted high bandwidth memory supply vs demand
UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois and team assess the pushback against price hikes may come from customer affordability, notably hyperscalers which will have to continue to tap capital markets to finance this capex. The report concludes that "any pullback in memory semis stocks is likely temporary."
Peter Lee of Citi thinks likewise: "While there has been market concern about excess AI computing capacity sparked by Meta $(META)$, we view the recent share price pullback (in Samsung) as a technical correction. We believe memory fundamentals are intact."
-Jules Rimmer
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 06, 2026 05:50 ET (09:50 GMT)
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