SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron face a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleging coordinated anticompetitive behavior in the DRAM market. The lawsuit claims the three chipmakers conspired to exit DDR3/DDR4 consumer DRAM production and pivot to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centers, artificially restricting supply and fixing prices since 2022. Conventional DRAM prices have risen roughly 700% over four years. Lawyers point to Micron shutting down its consumer Crucial DRAM brand at its most profitable point as evidence. The filing also references a prior criminal price-fixing conspiracy involving the same companies between 1998 and 2002. The downstream effects include price increases for gaming hardware from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve.
