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Mar 31
Memory shortage persists as AI-era supply-demand imbalance deepens
Global memory chip shortages have shifted industry focus from price competition to securing supply, driven by explosive demand for AI servers. Advanced production capacity is being prioritized for AI memory products, squeezing mature process output and pushing inventory levels below safety thresholds.
India is emerging in the global memory supply chain as Micron Technology scales production, with officials linking rising output to surging AI-driven demand and broader ambitions to localize chip manufacturing.

As AI demand drives high-performance computing and device upgrades, the global memory market is entering an upswing. China-linked players, including GigaDevice, CXMT, and Biwin, are moving to secure upstream wafer supply through contracts lasting up to two years, pointing to stronger demand visibility and firmer pricing expectations.

At GTC 2026, Nvidia introduced three new systems simultaneously: the Groq LPX inference rack, the Vera ETL256 CPU rack, and the STX storage reference architecture. These launches extend Nvidia's portfolio beyond its traditional GPU compute core into low-latency inference, CPU orchestration, and storage layers, signaling a systematic redefinition of AI infrastructure boundaries.
Nvidia's US$2 billion investment in Marvell signals a shift toward hybrid AI infrastructure, balancing dominance with openness while intensifying competition across custom silicon, networking, and next-generation interconnects.
GigaDevice Semiconductor reported stronger full-year 2025 results, supported by AI-driven demand and a recovery in the memory cycle. Revenue rose 25.12% year on year to CNY9.2 billion (US$1.33 billion), while net profit increased 49.47% to CNY1.65 billion. Adjusted net profit grew 42.57% to CNY1.47 billion. The company plans a dividend of CNY7.5 per 10 shares.
Global technology and semiconductor companies are moving to build independent chip ecosystems to meet rising artificial intelligence (AI) demand, a shift that stands to reshape semiconductor supply chains.

Biren Technology reported 2025 revenue of CNY1.04 billion (approx. US$150.47 million), up 207.2% year-over-year, supported by demand from domestic data centers and AI enterprise customers. Gross margin rose to 53.8%, up 0.63pp. The company's BR10X general-purpose GPU remained the main revenue contributor, while its next-generation BR20X is set for launch in 2026.

Under a push to localize capacity, China's leading domestic foundries are well-positioned to leverage their home market and policy advantages to replicate TSMC's growth trajectory. This momentum is fueled by a virtuous cycle of massive orders supporting substantial R&D and capital expenditure, which is accelerating domestic substitution toward advanced process nodes.
On March 30, US tech stocks fell sharply, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 4.2%. Memory stocks led the losses: Micron Technology dropped 9.88%, Western Digital fell 8.6%, while SanDisk and Seagate Technology each declined more than 6%.
Samsung's Exynos 2600 application processor (AP), built on the company's 2nm process, lags in battery endurance behind Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — a 3nm chip — by about 30%, according to a recent test. This gap has had a tangible impact on Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S26 series, with battery life varying significantly across regions depending on which AP the device uses.
US-based optical communications leader Lumentum is making a major investment in core AI data center hardware, reinforcing its strategic position in the AI infrastructure supply chain. As global tech giants continue to ramp up AI computing deployments, demand for high-performance optical interconnect components is surging, and Lumentum's expansion directly responds to this trend.