According to DigiTimes, industry insiders are now claiming that the entire memory production capacity for 2027 has been fully booked, well ahead of the schedule the industry expected. All of the big three memory makers—Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—have sold out their memory capacity for the upcoming year, leaving no room for additional supply for third parties to purchase more DRAM wafers. Interestingly, the report notes that everyone from OEM server makers and PC makers to AI labs knows that July and August are crucial months for securing allocations for the following year. However, some businesses have been kept in the dark because nobody has been public about this out of fear of losing their allocation.

Memory makers have been pushing customers into long-term agreements with contracts ranging from three to five years, using an advance payment deposit model where customers essentially pre-pay for some of the memory capacity. These deals are made on an individual customer level. All of this combined signals that 2027 will be the worst year in recent history regarding memory shortages, meaning that only those who managed to sign agreements for supply will benefit, while the rest are left without as there simply isn't enough available DRAM. Only about 60-70% of the estimated demand can be met in 2027, leaving a significant amount of demand unmet and waiting for the 2028 supply.Since manufacturers prioritize cloud service providers, hyperscalers, and AI labs, the consumer sector is left as the last step in the selling process. Some estimates show that 2027 unit sales in the consumer sector will be down compared to 2026, even as 2026 sales are down from 2025 for the same period. About 70% of DRAM is going directly to AI server and HBM allocation, leaving the remaining 30% for the consumer sector. NAND Flash, on the other hand, is showing signs of improvement, and 2027 will be a year when the supply chain balances out for storage, but not so much for memory.