Buying From the Grey Market at a Premium: Chinese AI Chip Makers Hit by the HBM Shortage — Prices Up 50%?
Rising memory prices combined with US export controls on HBM have left Chinese AI chip makers squeezed on both cost and supply, with reports of significant price increases.
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Rising memory prices combined with US export controls on HBM have left Chinese AI chip makers squeezed on both cost and supply, with reports of significant price increases.
HBM is a mandatory resource for AI accelerator cards — without it there is no compute — so its price increases propagate down the chain into server and system costs.
During a memory and AI chip upcycle, supplier quotes expire much faster than usual. Kewei Technology recommends shortening quotation validity, ordering against rolling demand and confirming alternative memory options in advance.
Kewei's take: what this means for procurement
Every shift in fab capacity or process node reaches buyers first as lead time and price. It is worth doing two things early: review stocking cycles for critical part numbers quarterly rather than monthly, and confirm alternatives in advance.
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