TechFlow News, May 18: Nomura released a report stating that AI-driven demand is growing exponentially while memory supply remains constrained, likely triggering a re-rating of memory stocks’ valuations. The firm significantly raised its target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—Samsung’s target price was hiked from KRW 340,000 to KRW 590,000, and SK Hynix’s from KRW 2,340,000 to KRW 4,000,000—maintaining “Buy” ratings on both.
Nomura noted that memory demand is entering an era of exponential expansion as AI semiconductor demand shifts from training to inference workloads.
In contrast, the firm expects industry supply growth over the same period to remain limited to roughly 5–6 times (a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30%), raising serious questions about whether this structural supply-demand imbalance can ever be truly resolved. The firm pointed out that the industry is currently attempting to narrow this widening supply-demand gap through various software- and architecture-level optimizations; however, Nomura believes these solutions can only slow the pace of growth—not reverse the trend. (Jinshi)
