Samsung, SK Hynix to unveil major chip deals with US tech firms as AI memory demand surges

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are preparing to announce significant long-term memory chip supply contracts with US technology companies on July 24, during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco. A senior presidential official described the expected contract values as “very large and meaningful figures.” The shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s being driven by demand for advanced memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, used in AI training and inference workloads. SK Hynix has already been moving in this direction. In June 2026, the company signed a multi-year technology partnership with Nvidia focused on developing next-generation AI memory solutions for data centers and supercomputing applications. In May 2026, SK Hynix reportedly received unprecedented proposals from global technology firms offering to invest directly in new production lines and equipment purchases. Samsung and SK Hynix together dominate the global memory chip market. Their willingness to commit to long-term supply arrangements reflects a strategy to stabilize the volatile memory chip market and provide revenue visibility that the sector has rarely enjoyed. The diplom...