SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won: Memory chip shortage may continue until 2030

[ Gearbest Technology News]On Tuesday (March 17) local time, Cui Taiyuan, chairman of South Korea's SK Group, issued an early warning when attending the NVIDIA GTC conference: Due to systemic bottlenecks in chip production, the global shortage of memory chips is likely to continue until 2030.

At the conference, Cui Taiyuan told reporters that with the exponential growth of market demand for artificial intelligence, the tension in the semiconductor supply chain is intensifying. He clearly stated: “I think the chip shortage may continue until 2030.” This means that the entire industry will face supply pressure for up to four years from now.

This is not the first time Cui Taiyuan has spoken out about this. When attending an event in Washington, DC last month, he revealed that the current supply and demand gap for AI memory chips has exceeded 30%. As the world's leading memory semiconductor manufacturer and the core supplier of Nvidia's high-bandwidth memory chips (HBM), the statement by the head of SK Hynix undoubtedly sets the long-term tone of “tight supply” for the entire industry.

Cui Taiyuan analyzed that the huge demand for HBM in the AI ​​industry is the root cause of the current “wafer shortage”. To alleviate this bottleneck, a large amount of capital expenditure and time accumulation are required. “It will take the company at least four to five years to increase wafer production capacity,” he admitted.

In terms of price trends, Cui Taiyuan's expectations are more direct. He predicts that the prices of various types of memory chips, including DRAM, NAND flash memory and HBM, will continue to rise, and “the increase may last for a long time.” This not only means that cost pressure on downstream companies will continue to exist, but also indicates that the semiconductor industry will enter a lucrative “super cycle.”

In the interview, Cui Taiyuan also revealed a major capital operation plan: SK hynix is ​​actively considering listing depositary receipts (ADRs) in the United States to expand its global investor base. Industry analysts generally believe that once successfully listed on the US stock market, it will help the market re-evaluate the value of this memory giant and get rid of the current valuation constraints in the Korean local market.

Moreover, at the conference, Huang Renxun predicted that with the iteration of AI models, the market demand for NVIDIA's next-generation Blackwell chips and Vera Rubin chips will reach astronomical figures, directly dispelling the market's doubts that AI demand may slow down. In addition, Huang Renxun also released the “Grok3 LPU” chip using Samsung technology and announced that the chip will be manufactured by Samsung Electronics and is expected to be shipped in the second half of the year.