Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance Reportedly Seek 10-Year DRAM Supply Deals
Chinese cloud operators have reportedly asked Samsung and SK hynix for DRAM supply contracts of up to 10 years, while SK hynix says its long-term deals with 14 customers typically run five years.
2 min readAI-assisted
SK hynix's 1cnm DDR5 DRAM, from the company's newsroom. The company says it has long-term agreements with 14 customers.
Image: SK hynix
Source · Press image from the SK hynix newsroom, used for news reporting.
Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance have reportedly proposed DRAM supply contracts of up to 10 years to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to secure memory for AI data centers, Korean outlet JKN reported on Oct. 28. Neither memory maker has confirmed the approach, and the report gives no volumes, prices or contract terms.
According to JKN, the Chinese cloud service providers are finding it hard to get the volume they need through existing distribution channels and short-term contracts, as AI services and data-center construction expand in China. They have bought DRAM and NAND flash from the two Korean companies before. JKN's sources say the providers want to lock in the high-reliability memory that data centers need ahead of demand.
Why Korean server DRAM
JKN ties the request to export controls. The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security has put high-bandwidth memory (HBM) on its control list, and in December 2024 it tightened controls on advanced chipmaking equipment alongside HBM. Servers also need conventional DRAM as main memory, and JKN says Samsung and SK hynix are still seen as leading China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) in technical capability and mass-production stability for server DDR and LPDDR. CXMT is expanding output, JKN notes. Voltgrid has also reported on CXMT's reported HBM3E yield plans.
The interest also reaches LPDDR, the low-power memory used in phones and increasingly in servers, so server buyers compete with phone and PC makers for the same volume. JKN cites Daishin Securities as saying memory prices could keep rising if server operators pay near server-memory prices for LPDDR.
What SK hynix said about long-term deals
On its third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 28, SK hynix said it has signed long-term agreements (LTAs) with 14 key customers, including major global cloud providers, and that they typically run on a five-year basis. It is in talks to extend existing contract periods with some customers. Pricing is generally set to reflect market conditions within a range agreed with each customer, and the agreements include safeguards such as deposits, the company said. It did not name the customers or say whether any Chinese provider is among them. The company also said memory supply is projected to stay short of demand through 2030.
The reported 10-year ask is unconfirmed; SK hynix said on its Oct. 28 earnings call that its long-term agreements typically run five years.
Illustration (AI-generated)
What is not confirmed yet
The 10-year proposals come from JKN's report and unnamed industry experts, and Samsung and SK hynix have not commented in the sources Voltgrid reviewed. Whether any contract has been signed, at what length, and whether US export rules would allow the volumes sought is not stated. Our earlier coverage of Samsung and SK hynix moving their China fabs to newer NAND shows the two firms also have production in China.
