Powerchip DRAM Foundry Prices to Rise 45% in July
Miles Bennett
Powerchip Semiconductor (PSMC) announced a 45% hike in DRAM wafer-start prices effective July, with revenue impact expected from November onward; logic foundry prices rise 10%–15% alongside, as the global memory supply gap is projected to last through 2027.
A 45% DRAM price hike — when does the money show up?
PSMC disclosed at its July 14 investor day that July DRAM wafer-start prices rose roughly 45% from June, with 8-inch and 12-inch logic foundry prices up 10%–15% simultaneously.
The revenue boost will not appear immediately — there is a lag from wafer start to shipment. The company expects the impact to hit financials starting November.
This means → Q3 earnings will not reflect the hike. Q4 is the real verification window.
Why can the supply gap last until 2027?
PSMC noted that major suppliers' future DRAM capacity has already been pre-booked by cloud service providers (CSPs), and the global memory supply-demand gap is expected to persist through 2027.
Micron's latest strong earnings are cited as corroborating evidence that AI infrastructure demand remains intact.
The company expects gross margins to improve sequentially in Q3 and Q4 2026, with operating performance peaking before year-end.
Logic foundry is tight too — who is grabbing capacity?
Q3 logic foundry book-to-bill ratio (BBR) hit 1.4x — in plain terms = for every wafer of available capacity, there are 1.4 wafers of orders. Demand exceeds supply.
AI servers are driving surging demand for PMICs — power management ICs that regulate voltage to chips — and MOSFETs, a type of power-switching component. Some capacity has already been crowded away from smartphone PMIC orders.
PMIC makers and some passive-component suppliers have announced H2 price increases. This means → there is room for further foundry price adjustments.
Auto chips — China's market is saturated, so where is the shortage?
China's domestic auto market is approaching saturation, but vehicle exports and overseas expansion continue to grow, lifting demand for automotive display driver ICs.
Some Taiwanese foundries have cut their capacity allocation for auto display driver ICs, causing shortages and longer lead times in this segment.
This reflects a mismatch: demand is rising while supply is actively shrinking — the gap comes not from a demand explosion but from deliberate supply contraction.
Where does the process roadmap stand?
PSMC's in-house 1X process began low-volume production in June and is still ramping yield, with mass production targeted for 2027.
The 1P DRAM process, co-developed with Micron, expects new equipment in place by Q1 2027, with mass production slated for mid-2028.
The 1P process is projected to lift wafer value to roughly 2.5× current levels — put simply = the same wafer produces output worth two and a half times more revenue.
3D AI Foundry — can it reach 20% of revenue in three years?
PSMC is advancing its 3D AI Foundry platform, focusing on silicon capacitors, interposers — bridge substrates connecting multiple chips — wafer-on-wafer stacking (WoW), and PWF product lines.
Revenue contribution rose from 3.2% in Q1 to 5.4% in Q2; the company targets 20% within three years.
Its 12-inch silicon capacitors have passed certification on a major international firm's EMIB platform, with monthly output already at several thousand wafers and plans to scale to 8,000–10,000 wafers per month by H2 2027.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.