End of an Era: Major Manufacturers Discontinue DDR4 Memory Production, Signaling Market Shift

The end of an era -- DDR4 production to essentially end this year, Micron the final domino to fall

Micron finally sent official notices to its customers that its DDR4 memory will finally reach end of life (EOL). According to Digitimes, shipments for these memory chips will gradually decline over the next six to nine months. The top memory chip makers have been planning to end DDR4 production due to increasing competition from Chinese memory makers that have been flooding the market with more affordable alternatives. Now, with Micron confirming its plans to shelve the tech, the world's top three manufacturers are off the board. Samsung said in April that it's already going to stop making DDR4 chips this year and focus instead on the higher-end and more profitable DDR5, LPDDR5, and HBM memory. And even though Chinese memory maker CXMT just reached peak DDR4 production, reports say that it's also pivoting towards DDR5 and HBM chips. Despite multiple companies ending production of DDR4 memory, demand is still seemingly high for these chips. DDR4 prices continue to surge in the open market, with rates jumping by as much as 50% in May. Micron Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana told Digitimes that the company expects DDR4 to suffer from major supply gaps, and that it could get to the point that DDR4 becomes more expensive than DDR5/LPDDR5 chips. Because of this, Micron is urging its customers to upgrade to next-generation memory, especially as these chips are becoming more affordable. Nevertheless, the company will reserve some DDR4/LPDDR4 supply for its long-term customers in automotive, industrial, and network applications -- industries that prioritize reliability and a steady supply over the faster speeds. On the other hand, PC and mobile devices are expected to have a modest increase in demand, especially as AI features are becoming more commonplace. This would require an increase in base memory configurations -- for example, Apple finally ditched the 8GB MacBook Air, which it famously once said is equivalent to 16GB of RAM in Windows, so that it would have enough memory to run Apple Intelligence. Smartphones have now also started moving from the usual 8GBs of RAM to 12GB and 16GB for some models. We expect mainstream DDR4 production to eventually come to an end, especially as hardware manufacturers increasingly switch to DDR5, which offers better margins. However, there is still massive demand for DDR4 memory, meaning it will be harder and more expensive to find these chips. Smaller players will likely step in and take advantage of this opportunity, but they might not have the scale and experience that the major memory chip manufacturers have, resulting in a drop in quality and long-term reliability.

Micron Announces Discontinuation Of DDR4 Memory: Demand Is Still There But Prices Will Likely Surge

With the discontinuation of DDR4 production by Micron, Chinese players such as CXMT will take care of the demand, but prices are still likely to increase in the coming months. Major memory manufacturers have shown interest in transitioning to newer memories like DDR5 and LPDDR5 due to their booming demand and more profits. To fulfill the demand, companies like Samsung and SK Hynix have freed up some of their manufacturing capacity by drastically dropping the production of DDR4 memories. While DDR4 production is still ongoing, it will halt significantly in the next few months. Samsung recently announced that it is dropping DDR4 production in favor of the latest DDR5 memories, and now Micron has announced that it is halting the mass production of DDR4 in the coming months. According to Digitimes, the production will continue but will drop drastically before the end of this year. This leaves the burden on other smaller players, such as CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies), which has rapidly ramped up DDR4 production in recent years. Taiwanese memory makers such as Winbond and Nanya have also expanded their DDR4 fabs, ensuring they can fill the gaps when the memory giants, such as Samsung and Micron, exit the DDR4 market. The decision to stop DDR4 production didn't come due to lower demand but due to transitioning to faster and newer memories. DDR5, LPDDR5, and HBM memories are more lucrative for these giants, and they have been ramping up their production to fulfill the demands of their clients and consumers. Micron has just started sampling its next-gen HBM4 memory to its clients, offering an incredible 2048-bit interface for AI servers. DDR4 seems no longer as profitable as these faster memories, which is why DDR4 production will dwindle drastically this year. Smaller players will have to fill these supply gaps as the demand for DDR4 still exists and will remain in the near future, since millions of DDR4-compatible systems still exist. And while the DDR4 made by Chinese manufacturers is cheaper, the Chief Business Officer of Micron, Sumit Sadana, says that the DDR4 will suffer major supply gaps, which will eventually result in more expensive DDR4 memories than DDR5 and LPDDR5.