Micron and Samsung executives say RAM shortage will persist through 2028

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors that demand for the company’s memory will exceed available supply through at least 2028, with manufacturing capacity prioritized for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI and DRAM for servers. He noted that this prioritization limits the supply of memory for consumer devices, tightening the overall supply-demand environment.

Mehrotra said Micron plans to open new clean rooms for memory manufacturing in 2028, but expects supply to remain limited even after first wafer output because production ramps up gradually. He also cited challenges in supply growth due to node transitions yielding smaller productivity gains per wafer and the shift from HBM 3E to a greater mix of 4 and 4E.

Seventy-five percent of Micron’s memory output for 2027 is already accounted for, and most sales discussions are focused on 2028, Mehrotra said. He added that demand for HBM is surpassing demand for DRAM, with HBM prices for 2027 "much higher" than 2026 prices.

Mehrotra attributed the sustained demand to trends such as larger models, growing context windows, more concurrency, and greater agentic use cases across enterprise and consumer applications, all of which drive higher memory needs and performance requirements.

Samsung EVP Kim Taewoo separately projected that HBM will account for almost 30% of DRAM manufacturers’ wafer capacity in 2027, up from 20% in 2026. This shift will further limit the amount of DRAM available for consumer devices, according to Reuters.

Micron’s Crucial brand stopped selling RAM to consumers in December 2025, citing AI-driven demand for data center memory and a focus on larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments. Consumers have already faced higher costs for prebuilt PCs and fewer RAM configurations at lower prices.