Driven by artificial intelligence demand, the monthly average prices of memory chips, including DRAM and NAND flash, have once again broken all-time highs.

The price of DDR4, a legacy DRAM product, rose more than 14 percent in a month to reach 24 dollars, while NAND prices continued their upward trend, surpassing 30 dollars.

According to market researcher DRAMechange, the average fixed transaction price of mainstream PC DRAM (DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8) in July stood at 24 dollars, up 14.3 percent from the previous month's 21 dollars.

This represents more than an eightfold increase compared to when the survey began in June 2016 at 2.9 dollars.

After rising for 11 consecutive months from April 2025 (1.65 dollars) through February of this year, the average price of DDR4 held steady in March before resuming its upward trajectory from April to July of this year.

TrendForce analyzed that "as DRAM suppliers plan to reduce PC DRAM supply next year to cope with the growing demand for server memory from cloud service providers, the resulting supply shortage will push fixed transaction prices for PC DRAM up by 15 to 20 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter."

The average fixed transaction price of mainstream NAND products for memory cards and USBs (128Gb 16Gx8 MLC) in July was 30.1 dollars, a 4.3 percent increase from 28.8 dollars the previous month.

This marks the 19th consecutive month of increases.

TrendForce stated that "demand for inventory stockpiling in NAND continued, centered around AI edge computing, next-generation smart vehicles, and industrial automation," while adding that "legacy single-level cell (SLC) and multi-level cell (MLC) products showed contrasting trends in July."

As memory suppliers concentrate their production capabilities on high-stack 3D NAND and advanced processes, the shortage of SLC worsened, causing average selling prices to skyrocket by 35 to 51 percent compared to the previous month.

On the other hand, the increase for MLC remained limited to the 4 to 8 percent range as customers faced growing cost burdens from the price surge that has continued over the past year.

TrendForce forecasted that "SLC will maintain high prices in the third quarter due to supply shortages, but the upward trend in MLC prices will gradually slow down."

(Photo: Yonhap News)