How would you feel if your colleague upstairs got a $400k bonus while you received just $4,000?
That is what just happened at Samsung.
And it reveals an aspect of the AI frenzy I had honestly overlooked until today.
Until recently, the AI computing story was all about GPUs, mostly designed by NVIDIA.
We all know this story.
But lately, attention has shifted to memory chips, specifically DRAM.
In simple terms, the 16GB, 32GB, 48GB of your laptop.
Only recently did it become clear there is a shortage of advanced memory chips.
LLMs require increasing amounts of memory to operate, as context windows become larger and models more sophisticated.
Even the most advanced GPU doesn’t work efficiently without enough memory.
The result is a massive surge in demand for memory chips.
And an explosion in memory chip stocks!
• SK hynix stock is up 231% year-to-date
• Micron Technology is up 194%
• Samsung Electronics is up 139%
Beware, these sky-high valuations are not just hype. Profits exploded too.
Q1 2026 net income growth vs. previous year:
• SK hynix: +398%
• Micron: +180%
And Samsung: +476%!!
Samsung obviously makes far more than just memory chips:
Smartphones, TVs etc.
The irony is that the consumer electronics business unit is now struggling because of higher chip prices, which in turn massively benefited the chip divisions.
Unions representing Samsung’s chip business units negotiated an unprecedented profit-sharing scheme worth roughly $400k per employee on average.
At the same time, unions from the consumer electronics division requested a court injunction against the scheme.
Their bonus was mostly untouched 😔.
The AI revolution is creating very strange winners and losers.
