Direct:
Samsung (005930.KS) is steering its newest and largest memory fab toward HBM-grade silicon. The fab is Pyeongtaek P4. Samsung has pointed much of it at 1c DRAM, with equipment already in for the phase-1 hybrid NAND-DRAM line and the phase-3 DRAM line. The 1c node is the sixth generation of 10nm-class DRAM, roughly 12-13nm, and it is the process that feeds HBM4's DRAM stack as well as premium DDR5, now that power efficiency has become a deciding factor in HBM4 competitiveness. Korean reporting puts a new P4 line at 100,000 to 120,000 1c wafers a month by the first quarter of 2027.
The reason this tightens supply rather than relieving it comes down to wafer area. HBM eats roughly three times the wafer capacity of standard DDR5 per gigabyte, once you account for the larger DRAM die area, the TSV and die-thinning steps, known-good-die selection, and stacking yield loss in advanced packaging. A fab that reads as a huge capacity add on paper produces far fewer sellable commodity bits when its wafers go to HBM. The 1c node is dual-use, but the priority allocation through 2027 is HBM, where the margin is.
TrendForce's pricing data already shows the squeeze. Conventional DRAM contract prices ran up 90 to 95 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2026, supplier inventory has collapsed from around 17 weeks to four, and SK Hynix (000660.KS) and Samsung are steering up to 40 percent of advanced wafer capacity toward AI memory. SK Hynix's 2026 output is essentially sold, and Micron (MU) has cleared its 2026 HBM allocation. The fabs meant to loosen things up carry 2027 and 2028 dates: Samsung's P5 not ramping output until 2027 to 2028, SK Hynix Cheongju and Micron's Singapore line in 2027.
For anyone pricing DDR5 into a desktop build or a server refresh, this is the part that matters. The capacity is being built, but the most advanced slice of it routes to accelerator memory through 2027, so consumer and general-server DRAM stays scarce and expensive well into next year. P4 will add capacity, though most of its advanced output is committed elsewhere.
Drafted with AI assistance against parallel reporting.
Sources:
- DigiTimes, “Samsung's P4 HBM push could worsen DRAM crunch in 2027” (May 26, 2026, paywalled stub: headline and lead only)
- DigiTimes, “Samsung reportedly accelerates Pyeongtaek expansion to ramp up HBM4 and 1c DRAM production” (Dec 12, 2025)
- TrendForce, “Samsung Reportedly Expands 1c DRAM Capacity for HBM4, Targeting 60K Wafers Monthly in 2025” (Sep 12, 2025)
- TrendForce, “Memory Giants' HBM Cleanroom Race: Samsung & SK hynix Fast-Track, Micron Acquires” (Feb 26, 2026)
- TrendForce, 1Q26 DRAM contract pricing survey (conventional DRAM up ~90-95% QoQ) (Feb 2026)
- Korean trade press via TrendForce/Google News aggregation, Samsung P4 1c DRAM line target of 100,000-120,000 wafers/month by Q1 2027
- Tom's Hardware, “HBM is eating your RAM” (HBM ~3x DDR5 wafer capacity per GB) (2026)
- Tom's Hardware, “Samsung and SK hynix warn AI-driven memory shortages could last until 2027 and beyond” (2026)
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