DDR5 RAM is becoming a nightmare for PC builders. According to DataDome, 91% of the traffic hitting one retailer’s DDR5 product pages comes from scalper bots, meaning automated traffic outnumbers real shoppers by roughly 10 to 1. These scalper bots constantly check listings for new stock, with some operations hitting RAM pages every 6.5 seconds, DataDome previously identified one operation responsible for more than 10 million scraping requests. Retailers are responding with purchase limits and CPU/RAM bundles, while some companies have stopped selling RAM separately.

DDR5 memory prices continue to climb in Germany, with average prices now at 419% of their July 2025 levels. According to data from 3DCenter some high-end kits have seen massive increases. One 64GB DDR5-6000 CL28 kit that sold for €208 in July 2025 has climbed to nearly €1,000, including a 22% jump in the last month.

DDR5 MEMORY PRICES UP NEARLY 10X DDR4 is older memory that was being phased out but it's spiking too as $MU, Samsung & SK Hynix shift wafer capacity from conventional memory into HBM for AI chips. The AI cycle is pulling on compute, memory, storage & servers at the same time with pricing power now flowing through the rest of the hardware stack.

DDR6, the next version of RAM, is planned to start selling in 2028. Major companies Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are developing it. It will launch with base speeds of 8,800 MT/s and can go up to 17,600 MT/s. This means much higher bandwidth than today’s DDR5 memory, so computers can move data faster and handle tough jobs better. Early test samples of DDR6 are already being tried out by processor chip companies.

Google Is Now Pulling DDR4 Modules Out Of Retired Servers And Reusing Them In New AI Servers Seems like $GOOG is so desperate for memory that they're using old DDR4 from retired servers and reusing them in new AI servers. According to the senior director of Google's supply chain infrastructure, the AI industry has rapidly shifted from being compute-constrained to memory-constrained, with memory being responsible for 75% of the BOM of an AI server. However, he also mentions Google is working on both software and hardware solutions to break through the memory bottleneck. $GOOG $MU $SNDK $SKHY $DRAM

I wanted exposure to DDR2/DDR3 bottleneck ongoing and found ESMT (3006). A $2.5B MC fabless company with PSMC wafer allocation (esp. focused on DDR2). Last month's net income was: $109.5M (July month), which annualized is $1.31B net profit (1.9x runrate P/E). If we look at net profit throughout the months tracking legacy DRAM price hikes: Jan 2026: ~$16M (est) Feb 2026: ~$17M Mar 2026: ~$31M (est) April 2026: ~$58M May 2026: ~$60M (est) June 2026: ~$67M (est) Jul 2026: ~$110M (Estimated months are inferred from reported quarterly totals. July is company reported) This earnings progression reminds me of $SNDK style price hikes + earnings inflection (esp. the report released this month). And I do expect DDR2/DDR3 capacity to remain constrained throughout 2027 (with legacy players like Winbond withdrawing from certain lines too like DDR2). It's not quite all inventory liquidation like the other peers. Sure lower cost inventory helped, but the primary driver seems to be the widening spread between wafer costs/supply and legacy dram ASPs? Their balance sheet is extremely solid as well: - Cash on hand: ~$395.9M net cash - $249.6M inventory, $146.3M receivables And the net income progression... is before further legacy DRAM hikes expected in Q3. *disclosure own positions, NFA It's always a bit daunting being early without much commentary around the idea. Wondering if anyone can stress test this thesis? Since a company that grew monthly net income from $16M -> $100m this year alone (July Annualized would be 1.9x P/E). And benefits from another projected wave of DDR2/DDR3 hikes this quarter... maybe like 35-40% for DDR2 lines per Trendforce, and DDR3 likely continuing to rise. Do markets just not know about this bottleneck/company or am I missing something from my research?