TSMC and Samsung are cutting 8-inch wafer capacity, pushing global 8-inch capacity to a projected 2.4% year-over-year decline in 2026. AI-driven demand for power ICs is becoming the key pillar supporting 8-inch fab utilization throughout the year. Foundries are considering price hikes of 5-20%, though weak end-market visibility and cost pressure from rising memory and advanced-node prices may cap actual increases.
TrendForce’s recent investigations indicate that Nvidia has revised the HBM4 specifications for its Rubin platform in 3Q25, raising the required per-pin speed to above 11 Gbps. This change has necessitated that the three major HBM suppliers modify their designs.
TrendForce’s recent research indicates that as major international NAND Flash producers reduce or halt MLC NAND Flash output and redirect their capital and R&D investments toward advanced process tech, the worldwide MLC NAND Flash capacity is expected to decrease by 41.7% YOY in 2026, leading to increased supply-demand discrepancies.
Conventional DRAM contract prices in 1Q26 are forecast to rise 55–60% QoQ, while NAND Flash prices are expected to increase 33–38% QoQ The DRAM supply-demand gap continues to widen as U.S.-based CSPs lock in capacity, forcing other buyers to accept higher prices; server DRAM prices are projected to surge by more than 60% QoQ NAND Flash demand is increasingly polarized between consumer and AI applications, with enterprise SSDs becoming the largest segment; client SSD prices are forecast to rise by over 40%
TrendForce’s latest research indicates that tight supply conditions in the memory market have recently driven a sharp rise in conventional DRAM prices. While HBM3e has also benefited from upward revisions to GPU and ASIC orders—pushing its prices higher—the ASP gap between HBM3e and DDR5 is expected to continue to narrow significantly over the next year.