Memory Manufacturers, Specifically Samsung, SK Hynix, And Micron Are Being Sued
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Last Thursday, Law360.com filed a federal lawsuit alleging that chip-making companies such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron “have exacerbated” the “RAMpocalypse” by fixing memory supply and prices. According to Game Developer, the lawsuit is accusing the chip-making companies of “allegedly fixing component prices while reducing supply” of the chips and memory that its consumers require of the products they acquire from said companies. In other words, the “memory crisis” has been the consequence of large investments in artificial intelligence data centers. Companies including Valve, Xbox, and Nintendo have already recently increased hardware pricing, citing the memory shortage as their primary reason.
Diving into the details of the lawsuit and the change in hardware, antitrust specialist and representative Bathaee Dunne LLP, alleges the three companies “coordinated" their exit from DDR3 and DDR4 RAM production, and shifted to “producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for data centers.” These cuts and shifts from traditional RAM coordination and processing to a new structure come at a moment when price increases are already prevalent and affecting businesses. This includes, but is not limited to, the 2025 shutdown of Micron’s consumer-facing Crucial business at its "most profitable point in its history", which lawyers will cite.
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Game Developer further details how companies such as console manufacturers are “trying to navigate the memory crisis to uneven results.” Sony plans to base FY26 hardware forecasts on the volume of memory it can procure at "reasonable prices”, but the competition to combat the “capital” needed in terms of RAM manufacturing and time to develop it is cutthroat, with no clear victors in the immediate future. Memories and the use of memory are on the line, and a price will have to be paid.
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