That figure for 4Gb parts is the highest since July 2021, and the market just witnessed a 100 per cent surge in a single month between May and June 2025.

The sharp spike is largely being blamed on ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a Chinese DRAM outfit that appears to have halted DDR4 production to pivot its fabs toward newer DDR5 modules and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI and data centre applications.

The move comes as Beijing tries to shift more of its chip ecosystem into next-gen territory, leaving older tech like DDR4 hanging. But with DDR4 still widely used, that shift has sent shockwaves across the global memory market.

Tokyo-based market researcher BCN says that DDR4 still makes up about 60 per cent of desktop memory sales, with DDR5 only recently catching up at 40 per cent. The sudden supply constraint has now left buyers scrambling to stock up, and pricing is expected to remain volatile for the rest of the year.

The global DRAM market is still dominated by the usual suspects. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology together held a 90 per cent market share in the second quarter of 2025. But none of them have rushed to flood the market with extra DDR4 stock, possibly seeing this as a moment to fatten margins.

With demand driven by legacy system support, embedded applications, and lower-cost consumer gear, DDR4 was meant to be the stable, boring part of the market. CXMT’s quiet exit has upended that assumption, and analysts suggest that prices might stay elevated unless one of the big three DRAM giants steps in with extra production.

So far, Samsung and SK Hynix appear to be pouring their resources into high-end DDR5 and HBM production to chase lucrative AI contracts. That leaves DDR4 supply stuck in limbo while buyers pay through the nose for what’s left on the shelf.