Jin Rong Jie·2026-01-05 08:33Group 1: Market Performance - The storage chip sector has shown active performance, with multiple stocks experiencing significant increases, such as Silan Microelectronics rising over 14% and Shannon Semiconductor increasing over 10% [1] - Overnight, the U.S. stock market saw strong performance in the storage chip sector, with Micron Technology's stock rising by 10.51%, reaching a historical high, and SanDisk's stock increasing by 15.95% [1] Group 2: Demand Drivers - The demand for storage chips is driven by substantial investments in global AI infrastructure, with major North American cloud service providers like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon expected to increase capital expenditures by 2026, further boosting demand for high-performance storage products [1] - The global storage chip market is projected to remain in a state of supply shortage, with server DRAM and NAND flash consumption expected to surge by 40% to 50% year-on-year, particularly in the AI server sector [2] Group 3: Price Trends - According to reports, storage contract prices are expected to continue rising in Q1 2026, with increases potentially reaching 30% to 40%, and DDR5 RDIMM memory prices anticipated to rise over 40% [2] - The ongoing price increases for DRAM and NAND Flash are significantly improving the profitability of related companies [3] Group 4: Industry Expansion - The expansion of the storage chip industry is expected to drive demand for upstream semiconductor equipment and materials, with increased requirements for etching, thin film deposition, cleaning, and measurement equipment due to the advancement of technology nodes [2] - Domestic leading companies like Changxin Storage and Yangtze Memory Technologies are advancing their production plans, which will enhance capital expenditure certainty in the domestic storage industry [2] Group 5: AI Infrastructure - Storage chips are essential components of AI computing infrastructure, as AI training and inference tasks require high-speed access to massive data, directly impacting the overall efficiency of computing clusters [3] - The upgrade and price increase of storage chips reflect the high intensity and sustainability of downstream AI computing investments, which will further stimulate demand across various related industries, including AI servers and advanced packaging [3]