The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, WSTS, sees the chip market almost doubling in 2026 and reaching $2.1 trillion in 2027. Memory is projected to take about 59% of that. This is not a classic silicon cycle. Korea’s semiconductor export prices jumped 173% year over year in July even as the shipment-inventory gap turned negative. That is the opposite of the usual four-year boom-bust pattern. The driver is the mix shift to HBM. High-bandwidth memory for AI servers uses two to three times the wafer area of commodity DRAM and sells at a steep premium. As more capacity moves to HBM, generic DRAM supply tightens and prices rise in a knock-on effect. Volume growth is slowing. Price and mix are doing the work. The macro cut runs both ways. Korea gets stronger capex and high-tech exports. The risk is chipflation that lifts costs for data centers, devices, and the broader digital economy. $MU