Samsung recently raised prices for some of its 4nm, 5nm, and 8nm foundry services by 10%-15%; TSMC also increased its 2026 capital expenditure to $60-64 billion, reflecting that existing capacity still cannot fully match AI demand.
This round of price increases benefits memory, wafer foundry, and packaging companies that control scarce capacity, but will raise costs for server, PC, and consumer electronics companies. The market will next trade a race between upward revisions to earnings and new capacity: the longer the shortage lasts, the stronger the pricing power of leading companies; if the expansion rate exceeds the actual growth in AI usage, price declines and inventory reversals will amplify volatility in semiconductor stocks.
