#Samsung

A thermal-compression bonder mid-cycle on a partially built HBM stack, its bonding head caught lowered onto the topmost die with a queue of unstacked dies waiting on a tray beside it

The HBM Memory Supercycle: A Quantitative Look at Pricing, Yield, and the Consumer Spillover

Per-stack HBM pricing has risen 150% across three generations. DRAM contract prices moved 60-70% in a single quarter. This briefing works through the mechanics that connect a memory-stacking bottleneck to a consumer laptop price tag.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

A contract-price ledger open on a bright bench, a new price line caught being written beneath several already-revised entries, the pen still touching the page

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

Samsung's Memory Business Is Raising Prices Faster Than Almost Anyone

While Samsung Foundry chases TSMC's yield, Samsung's separate memory division has been raising DRAM contract prices by double digits per quarter — a distinct business having a distinctly better year.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

A wafer yield map on a metrology screen in a bright fab, roughly half its die sites marked pass in green and the rest still unmarked grey, the scan caught partway across the disc

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

Samsung Foundry: Two Separate Races, Run by One Company

Samsung competes with TSMC for advanced-logic customers and with SK hynix for memory customers, using entirely different technology and entirely different scoreboards. Coverage that treats "Samsung" as one competition misses both.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

A multi-year market-share chart on a bright wall, one line declining steadily while two other lines rise past it at different points, a pointer caught tracing the connecting cause between the decline and the rises rather than resting on either crossing point

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

Japan Built the World's Dominant DRAM Industry. Then Lost It in About a Decade. Here's the Actual Mechanism.

By 1986, Japan held roughly 75% of the global DRAM market. By the late 1990s, that lead belonged to Korea, and by the 2000s, Taiwan's foundry model had reshaped the whole industry around it. This briefing covers why, not just when.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 5 min read

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