SK Hynix Chairman Warns of Memory Chip Shortage Through 2030 Amid AI Boom

SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won has warned that the global memory chip shortage could persist well into 2030, driven by unprecedented demand from the artificial intelligence sector. The South Korean chipmaker's chief made the remarks on the sidelines of Nvidia's GTC conference in San Jose, California, signaling that the supply crunch is far from over.

Chey attributed the ongoing shortage primarily to surging demand for high bandwidth memory, commonly known as HBM, from AI-driven industries. He noted that wafer supply constraints are the central bottleneck and that the company requires at least four to five years to meaningfully scale up production capacity. This timeline underscores just how structurally tight the memory market has become as AI infrastructure continues to expand at a rapid pace.

As one of the world's largest memory chip manufacturers and a key HBM supplier to Nvidia, SK Hynix sits at the center of the AI hardware supply chain. The company has seen remarkable growth over the past three years as cloud giants and AI firms race to build out data centers equipped with next-generation accelerators. That momentum has translated into significant pricing power across the memory market.

According to data from Counterpoint Research, server memory chip prices surged between 60% and 76% in the fourth quarter of 2025, with further price increases expected through the first quarter of 2026. SK Hynix is reportedly also exploring ways to help stabilize DRAM chip prices during the ongoing supply shortage.

Adding to investor interest, Chey confirmed the company is evaluating a potential American Depositary Receipt listing, which could broaden its access to US capital markets. SK Hynix shares responded positively, climbing more than 2% following the chairman's comments, reflecting strong market confidence in the company's long-term growth trajectory within the AI chip ecosystem.