Memory makers are making bumper profits in the wake of booming demand for AI hardware, with companies seeing huge boosts in revenue. In fact, ADATA reports that its profit has multiplied by over 28 times compared to the same time last year.
On 28 April 2026, ADATA revealed its latest financial results, showing a huge surge in operating profit (earnings before interest and tax). Its figures have ascended dramatically from NT$421 million in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 25) to NT$12.28 billion (around $380 million US) at the end of Q1 26. That’s a huge boost of over 2,800%.
Operating profits are obviously higher than the final net income figures, but the latter show a huge increase as well, going from NT$553 million to NT$9.5 billion. That’s an increase of over 1,700%.
If you were hoping for some green shoots and signs of RAM prices coming down, then it sadly looks as though you’re in for some disappointment. Taiwanese finance site Commercial Times reports that ADATA chairman Chen Libai described the company’s latest financial results as “only the starting point for the year’s operations.”
More price rises to come
Perhaps more depressingly for DIY system builders like us, Libai is reported as saying “the market has entered a new normal of long-term tight supply” [machine translation]. Commercial Times also reports talking to analysts who predict a further 40% increase in NAND and DRAM contract memory prices by the end of this year, which will then trickle down to retail prices.
For more detail on what’s driving the crisis in RAM prices, read my interview with a memory consultant. In short, the big memory makers have shifted their manufacturing capacity toward HBM, as it’s favoured for AI data centre hardware, with only small amounts of DRAM for traditional PC modules now being made.
Meanwhile, AI data centres are also hoovering up as much storage as they can find, whether that’s SSDs or hard drives. It all puts huge pressure on the supply of NAND flash drives and memory for PCs and consumer devices, driving prices through the roof.
It remains to be seen whether this is indeed the “new normal,” but it looks as though high RAM prices are going to be with us for a long while yet.
