South Korea’s July trade figures reveal a surge in high-bandwidth memory exports driven by AI infrastructure expansion, signalling a shift in chip demand that boosts memory suppliers while leaving logic chips relatively static.
South Korea’s July trade figures offered a clearer picture of the AI hardware market than any corporate presentation. According to the country’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, semiconductor exports reached $41.02 billion in the month, with memory shipments jumping 276.9% from a year earlier while system semiconductors, which include logic chips used for processing, fell 0.7%. The ministry said the strength reflected the spread of AI technology and the emergence of agentic AI, while DRAM and NAND prices continued to rise.
That split matters because the current AI build-out is increasingly constrained by memory bandwidth rather than raw compute. JEDEC finalised the HBM4 standard this year, with industry reporting putting its peak bandwidth at up to 2 terabytes per second per stack, far above conventional DDR5. In practical terms, that means AI systems need faster movement of data between memory and processors, not simply more floating-point performance. The result is a market that is pulling in high-bandwidth memory at speed while leaving logic demand comparatively flat.
The export mix also suggests that AI infrastructure spending is broadening beyond accelerators alone. The Korea Times reported that South Korea’s exports in the first ten days of July rose 53.9% year on year to $29.8 billion, driven largely by a 180.6% increase in semiconductor exports and a 404% jump in computer and peripheral shipments. That pattern is consistent with larger data-centre builds, where memory, storage and server equipment rise together as companies expand AI capacity.
The pricing consequences are now showing up across the supply chain. As memory makers prioritise HBM production, conventional DRAM supply tightens, lifting costs for servers, PCs and smartphones. TechTimes reported that Samsung and SK Hynix have been reaping record earnings from the shift, while AP said Samsung posted a record quarterly operating profit in the second quarter of 2026 and SK Hynix also delivered record revenue. The broader implication is that AI demand is not evenly distributed across chips: it is rewarding memory suppliers first, and leaving logic vendors with a far less dramatic lift.
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