SK Hynix forecasts memory chip shortage will last through 2030

The South Korean chipmaker posted its first quarter above 100 trillion won and says AI demand will outrun supply for years SK Hynix thinks the memory chip crunch is nowhere near over. The South Korean chipmaker says it expects demand for memory to keep outpacing supply all the way through 2030. The call came on October 28, 2026, alongside record third-quarter results. Record revenue and a long runway SK Hynix reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of 104.6155 trillion won. It was the first time the company had ever cleared the 100 trillion won mark in a single quarter. The drivers were the products that power AI data centers. High-bandwidth memory (HBM), server DRAM, and enterprise SSDs led the way. The company pointed to two structural reasons for its long shortage forecast. First, leading-edge manufacturing has become extremely difficult. Second, new fabrication plants take a long time to build. SK Hynix is also locking in customers early. Long-term agreements with 14 customers, including major cloud providers, already cover more than 50% of the company’s expected production capacity for 2027 and 2028. 2027 could be the tightest year yet CEO Kwak Noh-jung flagged 2027 as a potential...