In the first week of August 2026, in addition to "price increases," the memory chip market gained a more significant keyword—pricing power. According to a report from South Korea's Digital Daily on August 5, Apple, to alleviate cost pressure for its next-generation iPhone and smart devices, entered negotiations with CXMT on LPDDR5X and other mobile DRAM supply prices, but was clearly rejected. CXMT insisted on quotes not lower than Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, or even higher, breaking Apple's usual strong pricing position as a terminal giant. This is regarded by the industry as a landmark event of "pricing power change" in memory chips.
Why Couldn't Apple Pressure Prices Down?
Apple's price reduction failure was not accidental. On one hand, Chinese domestic terminal enterprises like Huawei and Xiaomi have locked in a large amount of CXMT capacity through long-term high-price contracts in advance, and the Chinese domestic demand market has built a solid "price defense line" for the latter, making it unnecessary to accommodate Apple's harsh conditions; on the other hand, CXMT's prospectus shows that core customers such as Tencent, Alibaba Cloud, ByteDance, Lenovo, and Xiaomi have all established in-depth cooperation with it, and its order pool is deep enough. In a seller's market with supply not meeting demand, the terminal manufacturer's past "quantity for price" strategy naturally fails.
In fact, Apple has already felt the pressure of storage price increases. In June this year, Apple announced price increases for iPad and Mac products, citing "unprecedented increases in component prices due to explosive AI data center expansion and demand"; it is widely predicted that the pricing of new products like iPhone in the second half may be fully increased, and the consumer electronics industry is entering a new price cycle. Previously, Apple had also lobbied the US government to approve the purchase of CXMT chips to alleviate cost pressure, and this negotiation failure means its cost buffer space has further narrowed.
Spot Market: DDR4 Stands Firm at $42, Huqiangbei Surges 14% in a Week
The storage spot price trend report released by TrendForce on August 4 shows that the upward momentum of DRAM spot prices has weakened since late July: 4Gb DDR4 and 2Gb DDR3 grain prices continue to rise slightly in limited trading volume, with mainstream grain DDR4 1Gx8 3200MT/s spot average price increasing slightly from $42.04 last week to $42.11. The slowdown in upward momentum is more reflected in high-level game-playing—sellers are reluctant to sell, buyers are观望, and the market is in the "price consensus" formation period, rather than the end of the upward trend.
Compared to the grain market, the price signals in the retail channel are more aggressive. The latest quotes from Shenzhen Huqiangbei market show that DRAM spot prices have ended a half-year consolidation and迎来 an extremely rare surge this year: DDR4 8Gb 3200 specification rose to $22, a weekly increase of about 12.8%; DDR5 24Gb and 16Gb climbed to $48 and $40 respectively, with weekly increases reaching 14.29%. At the terminal retail level, mainstream 1TB solid-state drive prices have risen from about 410 yuan last year to 950 yuan, an increase of over 130%; 16GB DDR5 memory kits have surged from 450 yuan to 1800 yuan, an increase of 300%. The proportion of storage components in consumer electronics整机 BOM has soared from 10%-15% to 40%-60%, directly reshaping the terminal pricing logic.
This Week's Price Overview (as of August 4)
- DDR4 1Gx8 3200MT/s spot average price: $42.11, weekly increase of 0.17%
- Huqiangbei DDR4 8Gb 3200: $22, weekly increase of 12.8%
- Huqiangbei DDR5 16Gb/24Gb: $40/$48, weekly increase of 14.29%
- 512Gb TLC NAND Wafer: $20.125, weekly increase of 4.55%
In terms of NAND flash, although 512Gb TLC Wafer spot prices increased by 4.55% this week, due to the lack of strong buying support, the price rebound momentum remains weak, and the overall spot market is still徘徊 in the atmosphere of weak terminal consumer demand, with the temperature difference between DRAM and NAND trends continuing to widen.
Supply Side Changes: HBM Squeezes Capacity, Pricing Power Shifts to Suppliers
The fundamental driving force behind this round of price increases is the supply-demand mismatch caused by AI computing power construction. International major factories continue to tilt capacity to high-end applications like HBM, leading to convergence of standard DRAM supply. Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix's 2027 DRAM and HBM capacity has been locked in by cloud service providers and long-term contract customers in advance, and some small and medium buyers have also secured positions in advance. The overall market maintains a "healthy and slightly tight" supply-demand structure, with solid price support.
The other impact of CXMT maintaining the price floor is to significantly alleviate the shipment pressure of Korean manufacturers in the general DRAM field. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix can concentrate resources on high-value-added AI storage products such as HBM4, LPCAMM2, and enterprise SSDs, and the focus of global storage competition further shifts upward. Industry chain news also shows that Samsung and SK Hynix are evaluating the use of domestic semiconductor equipment for their China factories, and the competitiveness of domestic semiconductor equipment is gaining recognition from international giants.
"Pricing Power" Confidence of Domestic Storage
From "price followers" to "price setters," CXMT's confidence comes from dual drive of capacity and technology. As of early 2026, CXMT has three 12-inch DRAM wafer factories in Hefei and Beijing, with a monthly capacity of about 280,000 to 300,000 wafers, and capacity utilization has remained above 95% for a long time; by the end of 2026, monthly capacity is expected to increase to about 350,000 wafers, approaching Micron's 385,000 wafers, with a long-term goal of 600,000 wafers per month. On July 27, CXMT Technology was listed on the STAR Market, with a surge of 465.82% on the first day, with a total market value once exceeding 3 trillion yuan, ranking first on the A-share market value list, marking the official entry of domestic DRAM into the global core competition camp.
The boom in the capital market has also spread to the industry chain: BW Storage expects first-half revenue of 15-16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 280%, with net profit of 7-7.5 billion yuan; Rise Technology expects first-half net profit to increase by 63.9%-81.2% year-on-year. Many storage industry chain companies are rushing to IPO, and the domestic storage ecosystem is achieving vertical integration from wafer manufacturing, main control design, advanced packaging to module integration.
Future Outlook: Contract Prices Continue to Rise, "Super Cycle" Will Continue
In the contract market, TrendForce data shows that in the second quarter of 2026, general DRAM contract prices increased by 58%-63% month-on-month, NAND Flash contract prices increased by 70%-75% month-on-month. In the third quarter, Mobile DRAM contract negotiations fell into a stalemate, with estimated increases converging to 8%-13%, and buyers' average inventory increased to 12-14 weeks, with the urgency of negotiations decreasing, but the long-term supply agreement (LTA) guarantee logic remains unchanged, and SK Hynix and CXMT are expected to become the main contributors to the increase. Institutions generally expect that the global memory market in 2026 will maintain structural shortages.
Overall, this super cycle driven by AI computing power demand is continuing, and the upward slope of prices may slow down stage by stage, but the direction is difficult to reverse in the short term. For purchasers, what needs attention now is no longer "whether prices will rise," but "how long and how fast prices will rise"—in a high-volatility environment, locking long-term agreements, controlling inventory, and diversifying supply have become new required courses for survival and competition in the electronics industry chain.
