Nomura: Memory Chip Demand to Keep Growing Rapidly Through 2028, AI Investment Outlook Overly Feared

Nomura: Memory chip demand will still grow rapidly through 2028; AI investment outlook is overly feared

2026-10-25 15:57 IT Home - Qingyuan

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IT Home, October 25 news: According to the South Korean media outlet Chosunbiz, Nomura released an optimistic forecast on the 20th, believing that despite slowing revenue growth at AI companies and concerns over financing prospects, global memory chip demand will still maintain rapid growth through 2028.

In its latest global memory chip industry report, Nomura listed Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as key recommended stocks, giving both a "Buy" rating, with target share prices of 670,000 won (IT Home note: about 3,380 yuan at current exchange rates) and 4.7 million won (about 23,712 yuan at current exchange rates), respectively.

Recently, bond prices of the AI company CoreWeave have plunged, intensifying financing pressure, and the market is worried that AI companies may therefore cut capital expenditure. At the same time, technological progress by the Chinese memory chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies has also raised market concerns about increased memory chip supply.

Nomura believes the market has overestimated the risk of AI companies cutting demand. The institution estimates that OpenAI and Anthropic together achieved 507% year-on-year revenue growth in the third quarter of this year, but to meet market expectations for full-year revenue, the two companies still need to achieve substantial growth in the fourth quarter.

Nomura also believes that the funding difficulties faced by data center operators such as CoreWeave are unlikely to cause investment activity across the entire AI industry to stall. The institution explained that risks for individual businesses may rise, but data centers and equipment that have already been built can also be used by other operators.

Nomura is bullish on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix mainly because of continued global data center expansion. According to data it tracks, global data centers are expected to add 22.3GW of capacity this year, rising to 31.5GW next year.

Nomura expects memory chip demand growth to continue outpacing supply growth, thereby supporting prices. Nine semiconductor companies including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will see their combined net cash rise from $282 billion in the second quarter of this year (about 1.89 trillion yuan at current exchange rates) to $2 trillion by the end of 2028 (about 13.38 trillion yuan at current exchange rates).

Nomura also noted that if data center investment plans continue to shrink or be delayed, memory chip demand forecasts will need to be re-examined.