Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron sued over alleged price-fixing of RAM

Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron sued over alleged price-fixing of RAM

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, the world's top three memory suppliers, have been sued for alleged price-fixing of RAM.

The lawsuit comes amid a global RAM shortage and rising costs due to increased demand from the AI sector.

The complaint was filed in a California federal court by individual and business consumers who claim that these companies violated multiple US laws.

Plaintiffs allege collusion began in 2022

The plaintiffs allege that Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron began colluding to fix DRAM supply and prices in 2022.

They claim this was due to low demand at the time, which led to a price increase of about 700% over four years.

The lawsuit further alleges that these companies "simultaneously cut production," coordinated a shift toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and exited older DDR3/DDR4 modules while conventional DRAM supply dwindled as prices rose.

Memory suppliers prioritizing HBM over regular DRAM

HBM is extensively used in AI data centers, with AI companies reportedly willing to pay massive amounts for it.

This could have prompted memory suppliers to prioritize HBM over regular device memory.

Earlier this year, Micron announced its decision to shut down its consumer memory division, Crucial, entirely and focus on AI clients instead.

The company has already signed 16 new agreements for memory supply until 2030.