Toggle DRAM and NAND to read $/GB history, revenue, cycle position and the high-margin frontier symmetrically across both axes.
AStructure — 40 years of DRAM price
Long-run price per GB. Switch period and scale to explore.
DRAM price/GB (1980→2026, log) — first rebound after a 7,000× fall
USD per GB · nominal lowest retail
Period
Scale
DRAM $/GB (nominal, McCallum-derived)
From $6.6M per GB to $1.84 in 2023 — a fall of over 7,000×. The decline already bent from −36%/yr to −15%/yr after 2010, and for the first time since the 2023 bottom the direction turned up. Not the end of structural deflation, but a cycle reversal.
BWhy this cycle is different
Price shock vs past down-cycles, and inventory dried out.
Cycle shock comparison (DRAM price, %)
The past five down-cycles were price collapses of −48~−84%. This time it runs the other way — +170% off the bottom. The first cycle pointing up.
Maker inventory days (DIO) — from filings, lower is tighter
Maker inventory days have fallen from the 2023 glut peak (Micron 182, SK hynix ~200) to Micron 120 days, SK hynix ~125 and Samsung ~95 — broadly at the ~120-day norm. The glut has cleared and inventories have normalized. (Samsung is company-level, DS not split out.)
Play cycle2Q264/4
3Q254Q251Q262Q26
Hit ▶ or drag the handle — the revenue, OPM and contract-price charts unfold up to that quarter, the RAMpocalypse cycle playing out before your eyes.
1Quarterly revenue trend
Converted to KRW trillion (USD 1,480) · Micron fiscal quarter · Samsung is the DS (semiconductor) division
Samsung DSSKMicron (FQ)
Revenue scaled up vertically in one year — Samsung DS 33→82T, SK 25→53T, Micron 17→61T. The AI-memory price surge pulled all three at once.
2Quarterly operating margin
Quarterly OPM (%)
Samsung DSSKMicron (FQ)
SK 72%, Micron 81%, Samsung DS ~66% — memory repricing flows straight into margins. A structurally high-margin phase where cycle margins now exceed prior peaks.
3DRAM · NAND revenue
TrendForce quarterly revenue (USD bn)
DRAM revenue · 4Q25 → 1Q26
SamsungSKMicron
NAND revenue · 1Q26 (vendor)
DRAM scale stays Samsung > SK > Micron; 1Q26 price spikes lifted all of them. NAND ranks Samsung · SK group (+Solidigm) · Kioxia — Samsung is #1 by scale.
4Memory contract prices — the cycle driver
TrendForce contract-price QoQ change (%)
DRAMNAND
DRAM contract prices jumped +90~95% in 1Q26 (a record), then +58~63% in 2Q, while NAND accelerated +55~60% → +70~75%, overtaking DRAM for the first time this cycle. The 3Q26 outlook is DRAM +13~18% · NAND +10~15% — the rise runs a third quarter, but the slope bends.
CDRAM’s AI frontier — HBM
HBM share, market size, and device price pass-through.
HBM share of Micron DRAM revenue (%) — 3× in two years
Higher memory prices flow into finished-device prices — Apple, Dell and Xbox all raised prices on 6/25 citing memory costs. As makers reclaim pricing power, downstream passes it to consumers.
5HBM · Capex · supply
AI-memory competition · capex investment by cycle · shortage persists
All three concentrate capacity on HBM and servers → commodity/legacy supply stays constrained. An excess-demand structure where 2027 demand is already pre-booked.