Big companies raise prices by another 30%! Storage chips collectively strengthen, with 9 stocks attracting over 100 million in financing (list)

The storage chip sector showed strong performance in the early trading session on April 7; Kangqiang Electronics and Shiying Co., Ltd. hit their daily limit. Yitengtong, LianYun Technology, Shangluo Electronics, Tongyou Technology, Demingli, and Yunhan City Store all led the gains.

Samsung Memory Again Raises Prices by 30%

According to a report by Caixin (财联社), Samsung Electronics has completed DRAM price negotiations with major customers for the second quarter and signed supply contracts. The price is up by about 30% compared with the first quarter. This price increase covers high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and general-purpose DRAM products used in servers, PCs, and mobile devices, representing the overall average increase.

Previously, Samsung raised the average DRAM price by about 100% in the first quarter. If the DRAM price at the beginning of 2025 is used as the baseline, after two rounds of price hikes, the supply price in the second quarter is equivalent to 2.6 times the baseline price.

In addition to Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron will also move forward with their second-quarter DRAM supply agreements and have begun detailed negotiations with customers regarding the price increases and contract terms. Industry insiders said the statements from the three major memory manufacturers indicate that downstream buyers will face increasing pricing pressure, with limited room for negotiation.

Samsung Q1 Performance Explodes

Based on the latest preliminary financial report data disclosed by Samsung Electronics for the first quarter, it’s also possible to feel how hot the storage market is. Samsung Electronics estimates that during the first quarter (January to March), its revenue will increase 68% year over year to 133 trillion won (about RMB 1.33M); operating profit will be 57.2 trillion won (about RMB 607.07B), far exceeding analysts’ consensus expectations of 40.6 trillion won compiled by LSEG, representing more than an eightfold increase from the same period last year.

Samsung’s prior quarterly operating profit record was 20 trillion won (about RMB 572k) achieved in the fourth quarter of last year, while this year’s first-quarter profit outlook increased by nearly two times sequentially.

Analysts pointed out that Samsung Electronics’ earnings surge beyond expectations this time is driven mainly by a surge in demand for storage chips and price increases fueled by the global AI industry. As one of the world’s largest storage chip manufacturers, Samsung Electronics holds a leading market share in DRAM and NAND flash. Strong demand for high-performance storage chips in areas such as AI servers and data centers has boosted overall performance.

Sanjeev Rana, head of the Korea Research Department at Lion Securities, said: “It’s all driven by the memory business, and its performance is far above expectations.” He estimated that the contribution from the memory business could be close to 90% of total operating profit. He also noted that the supply of HBM and traditional DRAM products is “extremely tight.”

Benefiting from the AI boom as well, Micron Technology, a U.S. memory chip manufacturer, last month projected that its revenue in the third fiscal quarter (through the end of May) will be higher than Wall Street expectations. Previously, the company recorded record profits in the second quarter (through the end of February) due to strong artificial intelligence demand and tight supply.

U.S. Stocks: Storage Chip Rally

Another view is that the strength in the storage chip sector is driven by a collective overnight rise in memory-chip individual stocks on U.S. markets. Data show that Seagate Technology rose more than 5% to a record high; Micron Technology, Western Digital, and SanDisk rose more than 3%.

Among them, Seagate Technology also had its target price raised by analysts. Specifically, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring maintained a Buy rating for Seagate Technology and raised its target price from $468 to $582.

Continued Memory Chip Price Hikes

Aijian Securities said that the third storage cycle that began in 2024 features multiple characteristics driven by the combined effect of factors including cloud vendors increasing capital expenditures, which in turn sparks a surge in demand for AI servers, as well as ongoing upgrades in smartphone configurations. The global storage chip market’s price-hike cycle is expected to continue into 2026.

TrendForce data show that the capital expenditures of eight major cloud service providers—Google, AWS, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu—rose from $145.1 billion in 2021 to $260.9 billion in 2024. The compound annual growth rate for 2021–2024 was 21.6%. The organization further predicts that in 2026, the capital expenditures of the eight global cloud service providers are expected to reach $710 billion, with a compound annual growth rate for 2024–2026 of possibly 65.0%.

9 Stocks with Net Financing Purchases Exceeding 261.09B

Looking at individual stocks, in the storage chip sector, while Ziwei Storage had the most net financing purchases since March, at 406k yuan. Demingli came next, with 200k yuan of net financing purchases since March. Overall, among storage chip sector stocks, 9 stocks had net financing purchases exceeding 91.29B yuan since March, including Zhaoyi Innovation, Shenzhen Nanshan Circuit, Huanhong Company, and other industry leaders.

Among the top 20 stocks by net financing purchases, some companies have already disclosed their 2025 annual reports. For example, Shenzhen Nanshan Circuit achieved attributable net profit of 2.47B yuan in 2025, up 74.47% year over year. Zhaoyi Innovation achieved attributable net profit of 2.36B yuan, up 49.47% year over year. Guanghe Technology achieved attributable net profit of 3.28B yuan, up 50.24% year over year.

From the perspective of year-over-year earnings growth rates, Ziwei Storage delivered standout performance: in 2025, its earnings grew 429.07% year over year and achieved attributable net profit of 853 million yuan. Demingli’s 2025 earnings grew 96.35% year over year, achieving attributable net profit of 688 million yuan.

（Source: Eastmoney Research Center）