SK Hynix CEO: 2027 will mark the most supply-constrained year in storage industry history.

SK Hynix CEO Kook Noo-jung said this week that 2027 will be the tightest supply year in the memory industry’s history, with customers actively pursuing long-term supply agreements. Even amid ongoing capacity expansion, demand is likely to outpace supply after 2030. SK Hynix’s American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) closed 12.76% higher on their debut trading day, raising approximately $26.5 billion and setting a new fundraising record for a foreign company’s U.S. IPO. The company stated that the proceeds will be primarily allocated to investments in fabs, advanced packaging lines, and lithography equipment, as well as to deepen partnerships with AI clients and expand its AI talent reserve. Meanwhile, Kook Noo-jung revealed that the firm is exploring a "memory as a service" (MaaS) model, potentially offering storage resource rental services to clients instead of direct chip sales. Industry institutions forecast that, driven by AI computing power demand, the HBM market will remain undersupplied, with HBM4 prices projected to double in 2027 from 2026 levels. Global HBM manufacturers are locking in production capacity by signing 3- to 5-year long-term agreements with top-tier AI clients.