(Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ahead of a potential strike at Samsung Electronics, spot prices for DDR4 memory in China have risen by 20% over the past week, WCCFTech reports.
Although there's still a chance a deal will be reached before the planned 18-day strike set to begin May 21, talks ended without any resolution on Wednesday.
In the interim, 64GB DDR5 RDIMM is now $1,350, up 11% month over month, while an 8GB DDR4 module is at $18, a 20% increase. NAND flash prices have also stopped declining. As WCCFTech notes, this ends the "weakness within the spot market" following the launch of Google's TurboQuant.
This could be companies and individuals stockpiling memory to get ahead of any strike-related shortfalls. Samsung Electronics is estimated to have made about $38 billion in operating profit in the first quarter of 2026 alone. It stands to lose about $20 billion if work grinds to a halt.
Workers are demanding that the company share 15% of its operating profit with them. They rejected the existing bonus caps and an offer of a one-time payment of about 13%, or $340,000 per employee, in part because rival firm SK Hynix is giving out bonuses of $470,000 per year, rising to $900,000 in 2027.
Samsung workers could, of course, jump ship to competitors. That said, a 2024 strike at Samsung ended after 25 days, primarily because employees could no longer afford to strike without pay.