China is poised to gain as global memory makers pivot to AI chips
China is poised to gain as global memory makers pivot to AI chips Linda_Heyer Wed, 06/03/2026 - 10:13 picture alliance / Zoonar | Askolds Berowskis Comment Jun 03, 2026 3 min read China is poised to gain as global memory makers pivot to AI chips China is capitalizing on the US and South Korean memory makers’ shift into high-margin AI chip production by building up its mass production of cheap memory chips – a trend that may create a new European dependency on China. Major Chinese memory chip makers are already benefitting from skyrocketing prices as demand grows. They are now focusing on mass production of mature Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips and NAND flash memory, vital for core industrial sectors such as automotive electronics, industrial automation, and medical equipment. Europe’s highly price-sensitive automotive and industrial sectors do not rely on advanced AI chips, but they do need large amounts of memory chips, for which Europe has no domestic production. And there is no new capacity on the horizon, as the European Chips Act focuses on logic and power chips rather than memory. Even if Europe leads in automotive power chips, those cars do not work without memory. Many other industries have given up low-margin, high-volume parts of their manufacturing to China in past years. While this may boost profits in the short term, it has led to supply chain dependencies in the long run. Moreover, if history is any indication, Chinese industrial players can then use…
