Samsung just locked in a 30% DRAM price hike for Q2 2026 contracts. That's on top of earlier increases. But retail and secondary market prices are dropping 10-20% at the same time. Same product, two markets, heading opposite directions.
The split comes down to who's buying. Hyperscalers are dumping $600 billion into AI infrastructure, and they're vacuuming up wafer capacity to build it. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron all prioritize those contracts because that's where the funding is. Even Apple had to pay up, according to analysis from BuySellRam.com. Meanwhile, Asian spot markets are flushing old inventory, which pushes retail prices down. Demand hasn't vanished. It moved upstream.
This creates what the secondary market specialists call 'inference inversion', where DDR4 and DDR5 prices behave differently depending on where you look. Enterprise contracts lock in higher prices because supply is squeezed at the foundry level. Retail sees oversupply from liquidation. SK Hynix and Micron will likely follow Samsung's lead within a quarter if history holds. For anyone building infrastructure, the gap between contract and spot pricing matters. Buy at the wrong time, in the wrong market, and you'll feel it.