Track Hyper | SK Hynix raises consumer-grade memory chip prices by approximately 10%

Author: Zhou Yuan / Wall Street Insight

The decline in memory prices has ended, and prices began to stabilize and rebound in the first quarter of 2025 and the following second quarter.

Wall Street Insight has learned from authoritative supply chain channels that SK Hynix DRAM (consumer-grade) chip prices have risen by approximately 12%.

Additionally, SanDisk issued a price increase notice to channels on March 6: "We will implement a price increase starting April 1. These increases will exceed 10% and apply to all products aimed at channel and consumer customers"; on May 3, market research firm DRAMeXchange reported that the fixed trading price of general DRAM DDR4 8Gb (gigabyte) products for personal computers rose by 22.22% compared to March.

In the A-share market, which companies are involved in DRAM and flash memory-related businesses, and what is their industry position and purity?

What are DRAM and Flash Memory Used For?

In this round of price adjustments, SK Hynix has raised the prices of DRAM chips.

This is the core component of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory).

Memory chips are the core components of storage devices, made from semiconductor materials (such as silicon) and used to store binary data (0 and 1). They are the smallest physical unit of storage technology and are widely used in computers, mobile phones, SSDs, USB drives, and other devices.

DRAM is a complete memory module that includes multiple DRAM chips, control circuits, heat sinks, and other components, communicating with the CPU via a bus.

DRAM is widely used in PCs, mobile phones, SSDs, and USB drives: in SSDs (Solid State Disks or Solid State Drives) and USB drives, DRAM is mainly used for caching.

In PCs and mobile phones, the main application scenarios for DRAM are PC memory sticks (DDR4/DDR5) and graphics card memory, as well as the "running memory" or "RAM" (Random Access Memory) in mobile phones, typically with specifications of 4GB, 8GB, 12GB, etc., determining the multitasking capability of the phone (such as running applications simultaneously and gaming smoothness), with the characteristic of data loss after power off.

Due to the deployment of GenAI (Generative AI) on the edge in devices like mobile phones or PCs requiring larger memory, the demand for DRAM in AI PCs and AI mobile phones is increasing.

For example, to run a large GenAI model smoothly on a mobile phone, the minimum memory requirement is 24GB, while currently, flagship mobile phones with larger memory only have 12GB or 16GB.

Smartphones and PCs generally use a combination of DRAM (memory) + flash memory, the latter of which is also seeing price increases. DRAM is thousands of times faster than flash memory, but its capacity is limited by physical size and cost, making it unable to replace flash memory as a large-capacity storage solution.

What is flash memory? In simple terms, compared to DRAM used for storing temporary data, flash memory is a semiconductor for long-term storage of static data. For example, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, and the 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage in mobile phone storage combinations (commonly referred to as phone memory).

In daily use, computers rely on both DRAM (for running programs) and flash memory (for saving files), both of which are indispensable.

It is important to note that the memory that has increased in price this time is mainly consumer-grade products.

What is consumer-grade?

This refers to storage products aimed at ordinary consumers, used in personal electronic devices (such as mobile phones and PCs), primarily meeting the needs for daily data storage, system operation, and multimedia processing.

Which ones are the leaders?

In the A-share market, which companies mainly focus on DRAM and flash memory?

For DRAM companies, the main ones are Beijing Junzheng and Shenzhen Technology. Shenzhen Technology is a leader in DRAM packaging and testing, but the proportion of its memory business has not been disclosed separately.

Flash memory companies include Zhaoyi Innovation, Dongxin Co., Ltd., Puran Co., Ltd., and Jiangbolong, among others.

The revenue proportions for Zhaoyi Innovation and Dongxin Co., Ltd. from flash memory are 60%+ and 61.75%, respectively.

Puran Co., Ltd. mainly focuses on NOR Flash + EEPROM: NOR Flash is also a type of flash memory, mainly used in low-power IoT devices and automotive-grade MCUs (microcontroller units), as well as industrial control (such as PLCs and motor drives).

The differences between EEPROM, NOR Flash, NAND (flash memory), and DRAM are shown in the table below:

The application scenarios for EEPROM mainly include remote control configurations for consumer electronics; tire pressure monitoring (TPMS) in automotive electronics; calibration data for medical devices like blood glucose meters; and status recording for OTA upgrades of sensor nodes in the Internet of Things (IoT).

MCUs often connect to EEPROM via I²C or SPI interfaces for storage.

Puran Co., Ltd. has not disclosed its flash memory revenue separately, mainly focusing on NOR Flash + EEPROM and mass-produced MCU chips.

Jiangbolong is a leader in memory modules, with products including solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory cards; Demingli focuses on the design of flash memory main control chips, with storage module business accounting for over 90%; Baiwei Storage is a leader in the embedded storage field, with NAND Flash (flash memory) modules as core products; Lanqi Technology mainly produces DDR5 memory interface chips, which are highly related to the DRAM industry.

There is a relatively unique company, Wanrun Technology, which, through its subsidiary Changjiang Wanrun Semiconductor, is involved in DRAM (including LPDDR) and SSD (including PSSD enterprise-level), focusing on high-performance storage computing.

Wanrun Technology is often understood by the market as a shell company for Changjiang Storage (a leader in 3D NAND flash memory), but in fact, it is not; they belong to different state-owned asset supervision systems, as shown in the diagram below:

So what is the relationship between Wanrun Technology and Yangtze Memory Technologies?

Yangtze Industry Group, through its subsidiary Yangtze Industry Investment Group, holds 2.72% of the shares in Yangtze Memory Technologies Holdings (the direct controlling shareholder of Yangtze Memory), becoming its seventh largest shareholder, thus becoming an indirect shareholder of Yangtze Memory.

However, Wanrun Technology has no equity relationship with Yangtze Memory.

Although Wanrun Technology is also laying out its memory business, its revenue contribution is relatively low, accounting for less than 5%. The overall proportion of the memory business is extremely low, with flash memory-related products being the main source of income, and the DRAM business still in its early development stage.

Shannon Semiconductor mainly acts as an agent for memory products, especially high-end computing memory, such as HBM.

This company primarily focuses on memory distribution, mainly representing SK Hynix products, including HBM (High Bandwidth Memory, a type of DRAM).

Shannon Semiconductor's memory business accounts for about 95% of the company's total revenue; among which DRAM accounts for 70% of memory revenue, while NAND and SSD account for 30%.

The last company worth mentioning as a "newcomer" in the memory sector is Chengbang Co., Ltd., which originally focused on landscape design.

On February 14, this company announced: After investing in and acquiring Dongguan Xinchun Chengbang Technology Co., Ltd. (completed acquisition and control on October 12, 2024, holding 51.02%, and will consolidate thereafter), it plans to make the memory chip business its second main business, forming a dual main business development pattern of "environmental construction + memory chips."

In summary, Jiangbolong's consumer-grade memory brand Lexar ranks second and third in the global memory card and USB flash drive market share.

According to Demingli's 2024 annual report, solid-state drives account for 48.20%, mobile storage accounts for 28.01%, and embedded storage accounts for 17.67%.

GigaDevice's core business covers three major sectors: memory chips, MCUs, and sensors.

The 2024 annual report shows that GigaDevice's memory chip business revenue is 5.194 billion yuan, accounting for 70.6% of total revenue; among which NOR Flash products have a global market share of 15%, ranking among the top three globally.

Another company, Beijing Junzheng, has a high proportion of consumer markets such as security monitoring in computing chips (including storage), with memory chips being its largest revenue segment