You mean the companies that have been tried and convicted in the past of forming a cartel to manipulate DRAM prices, and are now all raising prices through the roof and showing record profits, are not colluding again?
Just because the demand is coming from a different market doesn’t mean the manufacturers aren’t colluding to raise prices and gouge their customers.
The first time Samsung and micron colluded on dram pricing was in the early 2000s when money was also falling from the sky due to high demand.
The fines they were charged with were a fraction of the profits they gained from price fixing.
It’s almost like having a limited number of manufacturers and a huge demand spike is actually an incentive for price fixing because they can work together to increase profits artificially.
I don’t think you really understand how price fixing and near monopoly markets work. With monopolies and near monopolies, there’s no real downside to colluding on prices, especially in the US where fines are basically guaranteed to be less than profits, and when your company is not headquartered in the US and can’t be forcibly broken apart by the government. If you’re the only company, or one of 3, then you can set whatever price you want. As long as the conspirators agree to pricing, no one will bat an eye at claims of high demand or supply chain issues because all your conspirators also have similarly high pricing.
Usually I say economists are insane cultists. But I really think you could benefit from reading some material on macroeconomics.
The first time Samsung and micron colluded on dram pricing was in the early 2000s when money was also falling from the sky due to high demand
Yes mate, money was falling from the sky so much:
The first two years in which a DRAM conspiracy is alleged to have existed, 1999 and 2000, were good for the industry, with significant revenue growth and several swings in price, notes DRAM analyst Sherry L. Garber of Semico Research Corp., in Phoenix, Ariz. In 2001, however, DRAM revenues fell by about 61 percent. The average aggregate selling price, a weighted measure of the price of all types of DRAM, dropped 83 percent; the average price per megabit, which can fall even in good years, plummeted 76 percent, to below production costs.
Looks like the price was swinging up and down at the time, so much for money falling out of the sky due to high demand ???
As long as the conspirators agree to pricing, no one will bat an eye at claims of high demand or supply chain issues because all your conspirators also have similarly high pricing.
There is no need to agree to collude on pricing when:
Meanwhile, SK Hynix is considering a U.S. listing as its stock price in South Korea surges, and in October, the company said it had secured demand for its entire 2026 RAM production capacity.
So far just a bunch of rag tag 17 random people suing Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron in the U.S. District Court… and here’s how their chances look
HBM carries far higher margins than commodity DRAM, and every maker had an independent incentive to chase Nvidia’s order book. The late-2022 cuts came during the worst memory downturn in over a decade, when SK hynix and Micron were posting operating losses, and Samsung held out on cuts months longer than its rivals, which is awkward material for a case looking to rely on a lockstep narrative. Crucial’s shutdown also coincided with Micron reallocating output toward data center customers paying more. As such, every allegation in the complaint has a non-conspiratorial explanation available, and under Twombly, the plaintiffs need there to be at least a plausible conspiracy theory to have a chance of success.
Good luck with your conspiracy, to me this would be the worst time to collude, especially if you had spare capacity and insane demand that your only few rivals would snap up in an instant
By the way:
SK Hynix will invest an astronomical sum totaling 600 trillion won in building the Yongin semiconductor cluster. Initially, SK Hynix planned to invest 30 trillion won per fab, for a total of 120 trillion won across four fabs. However, calculations have completely changed recently. The first fab, which broke ground in February this year and is scheduled for completion in May 2027, alone is estimated to require approximately 120 trillion won investment. The first fab investment alone matches the scale of the original total budget. The sharp increase in investment results from fab expansion combined with external variables.
According to the industry on the 29th, LH will soon place orders for construction to create the industrial complex and begin work in the second half of next year. Samsung Electronics has said it plans to invest 360 trillion won here. However, the industry expects the investment size to grow further as construction of production facilities proceeds. In addition to Samsung Electronics production lines, more than 80 semiconductor materials, parts, equipment, and design corporations, as well as research institutions, will also move in.
Marking the start of construction on the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in U.S. history, Micron executives to join federal, state and local leaders to celebrate the $100 billion project in Central New York
they’re not colluding this is a left wing conspiracy theory which is weird because demand is obviously coming from ai hyperscalers
Demand is unrelated to price collusion.
You mean the companies that have been tried and convicted in the past of forming a cartel to manipulate DRAM prices, and are now all raising prices through the roof and showing record profits, are not colluding again?
Just because the demand is coming from a different market doesn’t mean the manufacturers aren’t colluding to raise prices and gouge their customers.
i mean micron literally left the consumer dram business because ai hyperscaler demand is absolutely bonkers off the chart
this is the opposite reason to collude, why risk massive fines and blow back when money is falling from the american sky?
The first time Samsung and micron colluded on dram pricing was in the early 2000s when money was also falling from the sky due to high demand.
The fines they were charged with were a fraction of the profits they gained from price fixing.
It’s almost like having a limited number of manufacturers and a huge demand spike is actually an incentive for price fixing because they can work together to increase profits artificially.
I don’t think you really understand how price fixing and near monopoly markets work. With monopolies and near monopolies, there’s no real downside to colluding on prices, especially in the US where fines are basically guaranteed to be less than profits, and when your company is not headquartered in the US and can’t be forcibly broken apart by the government. If you’re the only company, or one of 3, then you can set whatever price you want. As long as the conspirators agree to pricing, no one will bat an eye at claims of high demand or supply chain issues because all your conspirators also have similarly high pricing.
Usually I say economists are insane cultists. But I really think you could benefit from reading some material on macroeconomics.
Yes mate, money was falling from the sky so much:
Looks like the price was swinging up and down at the time, so much for money falling out of the sky due to high demand ???
There is no need to agree to collude on pricing when:
Meanwhile, SK Hynix is considering a U.S. listing as its stock price in South Korea surges, and in October, the company said it had secured demand for its entire 2026 RAM production capacity.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/10/micron-ai-memory-shortage-hbm-nvidia-samsung.html
You are literally sold out of all inventory for the year.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2998935/ram-is-so-expensive-samsung-wont-even-sell-it-to-samsung.html
That’s pretty good price collusion if so! Fucking even yourself over in the process!
All these companies impacted and so far none have sued for what you think is completely obvious price collusion?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–present_global_memory_supply_shortage
So far just a bunch of rag tag 17 random people suing Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron in the U.S. District Court… and here’s how their chances look
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/samsung-sk-hynix-and-micron-face-a-third-dram-price-fixing-lawsuit
Good luck with your conspiracy, to me this would be the worst time to collude, especially if you had spare capacity and insane demand that your only few rivals would snap up in an instant
By the way:
https://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=258178
https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/12/29/S6LSNGZ6B5E3XLY5AVVWA4KQFE/
https://investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/micron-announces-groundbreaking-historic-new-york-megafab
Investing hundreds of billions of dollars into new semiconductor manufacturing facilities just to fool the regular RAM buying pleb!
ha ha turns out they weren’t needed at all, all this money is just being spent to fool you into paying higher prices for memory! or something