三星、SK海力士、美光被诉合谋限制DRAM供应

A new lawsuit says the RAM shortage may involve more than AI demand.

Three memory giants now face claims they coordinated the DRAM supply squeeze.

AI data centers have pulled supply toward HBM, a faster stacked DRAM format.

The lawsuit claims that shift became cover for cutting DDR3 and DDR4 output.

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron control roughly 90% of global DRAM revenue.

A market that concentrated gives buyers few escapes when supply tightens together.

The complaint says all 3 firms reduced commodity supply instead of chasing higher prices. In a normal competitive market, rising DRAM prices should make each company produce more. But, producing more can lower the market price, because buyers suddenly have more chips available.

Producing less can keep chips scarce, so buyers must pay much more for each chip.

That is the plaintiffs’ core antitrust claim.

Samsung previously paid $300M for DRAM price fixing, while Hynix paid $185 M.

Micron says it competes lawfully and will defend itself against the claims.

The case will likely turn on discovery. i.e. the court will need internal evidence, like emails, messages, meeting notes, or pricing plans, showing the companies actually coordinated instead of independently reacting to the same market conditions.

Doing the same thing at the same time can look suspicious, but antitrust law usually needs more than similarity to prove illegal collusion.

polygon .com/ram-manufacturers-sued-supply-price-fixing/