Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen spoke to reporters in Taipei on September 19, 2026, following a forum, saying that PC-grade DDR4 and mainstream DDR5 are "no longer in short supply."
In June, Micron, and in July, SK hynix, both signaled that memory supply-demand tightness would continue into 2027. Chen's comments can be read as a rebuttal from the buyer's side—PC makers who procure memory.
Yet in the same interview, Chen also forecast that finished PC prices would rise by an average of 5-20% in Q4 2026, with average selling prices (ASP) peaking around mid-2027. He said prices could begin to fall in the second half of 2027, though he added that nobody knows exactly when that turning point will come.
When you line up the sellers' and buyers' outlooks by target market and timeframe, the areas where they actually contradict each other turn out to be narrower than they might first appear. It also becomes clear that component prices and finished-product prices don't necessarily move in lockstep.
"The Big Three Memory Makers Want to Keep Gross Margins Above 80%": Acer Chairman's Critique
The remarks came at the "Kingly Way Management and AI International Forum," held in Taipei by the Stan Shih Foundation for Education and the Global Views–Commonwealth Publishing Group to mark Acer's 50th anniversary. The Stan Shih Foundation is chaired by Acer founder Stan Shih; the event itself was not organized by the Acer Group.
Speaking to reporters after the forum, Chen said that for DDR4 and mainstream DDR5, the market is no longer in a state of shortage but rather one where supply exceeds demand. The Economic Daily News also reported that DDR4 prices have begun to fall.
His criticism was aimed squarely at the three major memory makers.
According to Chen, the Big Three want to maintain gross margins above 80% for as long as possible, which is why they keep messaging that "prices won't fall." He argued that even as the market currently sees each company projecting a bullish outlook and contract prices holding at elevated, unstable levels, in reality each of them is sitting on inventory.
Chen did not name any companies specifically. The three major DRAM makers generally referred to are Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron.
The Economic Daily News reported on September 19 that Chen also dismissed the view that shortages would persist through 2030, calling it "unrealistic."
About two months earlier, ADATA Chairman Chen Li-bai had said the DRAM shortage could last another decade, as reported by TechSpot—showing that views diverge even among Taiwanese companies.
However, this criticism should be read with the understanding that Chen himself has a stake in the outcome.
Acer is a PC maker that procures memory and SSDs, meaning that if the market comes to believe component prices will fall, it could work in Acer's favor during procurement negotiations. Sellers have an incentive to keep prices high, while buyers have an incentive to see prices fall.
Both sides' claims need to be read with an understanding of what each party is selling and what each is buying.
Components Aren't Scarce, So Why Is the PC Price Peak Set for Mid-2027?
For finished PC prices in Q4 2026, Chen expects an average increase of 5-20%.
According to the Economic Daily News and TVBS, there may still be room for further price increases in Q1 2027. Chen's view is that average selling prices will peak around mid-2027, after which prices could begin to decline in the second half of 2027.
ETtoday reported that average selling prices could start falling as early as the end of 2027.
However, Chen is not asserting a definite timeline for when prices will fall.
According to the Economic Daily News, Chen said nobody knows exactly when the turning point will arrive, only going so far as to say that price increases could stop and prices could stabilize in the second half of 2027.
So there is no basis in these remarks for definitively stating that "prices will fall in the latter half of 2027."
Why would finished-product prices keep rising even as component shortages ease?
Chen pointed to inventory costs as the reason.
According to the Economic Daily News, Chen explained that it takes time for falling component prices to be reflected in finished-product prices, and that this is also affected by the acquisition cost of the component inventory each manufacturer currently holds.
He further stated that while Acer's procurement costs for memory and SSDs in 2027 are expected to be lower than in 2026, Acer's current memory inventory levels are high.
The mechanism is straightforward.
PC makers procure components like memory at contract prices in advance, hold them as inventory, then assemble and ship PCs. As a result, the cost basis of PCs sold in a given quarter reflects component prices that were locked in earlier.
The fact that 2027 procurement costs are expected to be lower than 2026's means, conversely, that PCs shipped from late 2026 through early 2027 may still incorporate components procured at 2026's higher prices.
The specific timing of purchases wasn't disclosed, but larger inventories take longer to work through.
The explanation of a time lag between when component markets ease and when finished-product prices actually fall is consistent with the inventory-cost mechanism Chen himself described. It also doesn't contradict his outlook for PC prices peaking around mid-2027.
Let's translate this into terms relevant to Japanese readers.
If we simply apply Chen's stated percentage increases to a laptop priced at ¥150,000 including tax, a 5% increase would bring it to ¥157,500, and a 20% increase would bring it to ¥180,000.
However, this is merely a simple calculation based on the average outlook Chen shared in a Taiwan-based interview—it is not a prediction of retail prices in Japan. Whether the same timing and magnitude of price increases will apply in the Japanese market cannot be determined from these remarks alone.
What's Still Short: LPDDR5X-9600 and Some CPUs—Where English-Language Coverage Diverges
The items Chen identified as "still in short supply" are limited in scope.
According to the Economic Daily News, these are high-performance components such as LPDDR5X-9600, used in combination with NVIDIA's N1 and N1X, along with some low- to mid-range CPUs. No specific CPU model numbers were reported.
LPDDR5X-9600 refers to LPDDR5X memory with a data transfer speed of 9,600 MT/s—equivalent to 9.6 billion data transfers per second.
LPDDR is a DRAM standard optimized for low power consumption, often mounted directly onto the circuit board in thin-and-light laptops, among other devices.
Even within the same DRAM family, different standards or speeds constitute different products. So even if general-purpose DDR4 or DDR5 is in oversupply, that doesn't necessarily offset a shortage of high-speed memory paired with specific processors.
This distinction explains why Chen, in the same interview, could say both "there's enough" and "there's a shortage."
However, some English-language media outlets have blurred this distinction.
TechSpot reported that CPUs such as NVIDIA's N1X were in short supply. Meanwhile, the Economic Daily News, which interviewed Chen directly, reported that what's in short supply is memory—specifically LPDDR5X-9600 and similar products paired with the N1 and N1X.
Whether it's the N1X itself that's scarce, or the memory paired with the N1X that's scarce, carries very different implications.
The former would point to a supply problem on NVIDIA's end. The latter aligns with Chen's actual claim: that it's not memory across the board that's tight, but only a subset of high-speed products.
There are also differences in how the timing has been described.
TechSpot described the PC price peak as coming in "the first half of 2027," while Tom's Hardware ran a headline declaring that "PC prices will fall by the second half of 2027."
By contrast, Taiwanese media reported that "the peak will come around mid-2027" and that "prices could begin to fall in the second half of 2027"—framed as a possibility, not a certainty.
In the process of being summarized in English, the timing of the peak appears to have been pulled forward somewhat, and the drop in prices—originally framed as a possibility—has been rendered in more definitive terms.
That said, it should be noted that the Taiwanese media reports are also journalist summaries, not verbatim transcripts of everything Chen said.
Sellers See Shortages Persisting Beyond 2027; Buyers See PC-Grade Supply as Sufficient
At Micron's Q3 earnings call in June 2026, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra cited AI demand and structural supply constraints in stating: "We expect tight conditions to persist beyond calendar 2027." This was reported by CNBC on June 24, 2026.
SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung told Reuters on July 10 that 2027 would be the industry's worst year ever in terms of supply. He also said that customer demand would exceed SK hynix's own supply capacity even beyond 2030.
Aligning speakers, positions, target markets, and timeframes produces the following picture:
| Speaker | Position | Target | Outlook | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micron (Sanjay Mehrotra) | Seller | Not limited to a specific market | Tightness will persist beyond calendar 2027 | June 2026 |
| SK hynix (Kwak Noh-jung) | Seller | Customer demand vs. own supply capacity | 2027 will be extremely difficult on the supply side; demand will exceed own supply capacity even beyond 2030 | July 2026 |
| Acer (Jason Chen) | Buyer | PC-grade DDR4, mainstream DDR5 | No longer in shortage | September 2026 |
| Acer (Jason Chen) | Buyer | High-performance products like LPDDR5X-9600 | Still in shortage | September 2026 |
| Chou Tai-yun (Taiwanese analyst) | Third party | Server-grade ECC memory, HBM | Still tight, with higher unit prices and margins than PC-grade products | September 2026 |
The views of "shortage" versus "sufficient supply" aren't even referring to the same market in the first place.
Micron's forecast, not limited to any specific market, is that supply-demand tightness will persist beyond 2027. SK hynix's outlook is that customer demand for its own products will exceed its own supply capacity even past 2030.
Acer, by contrast, says shortages have eased for PC-grade DDR4 and mainstream DDR5, while high-performance products like LPDDR5X-9600 and some CPUs remain in short supply.
Organized this way, the number of pairings that can be said to genuinely and directly contradict each other turns out to be surprisingly small.
SK hynix's remarks about 2030 compare its own supply capacity against customer demand—they don't directly describe overall market supply-demand conditions. As such, they don't directly refute Acer's view.
Nor has Acer claimed that server-grade ECC memory or HBM are "sufficiently supplied." As analyst Chou Tai-yun pointed out in the Commercial Times, what Chen said was sufficiently supplied applies specifically to PC-grade DDR4 and mainstream DDR5.
Micron's comments, too, address overall memory market tightness driven by AI demand—they aren't narrowly focused on general-purpose PC memory alone.
Therefore, it can't be concluded that Acer's and Micron's outlooks are in direct conflict over exactly the same market. How tight PC-grade general-purpose memory specifically is, within the broader market tightness Micron describes, cannot be determined from these two companies' statements alone.
All of these are forecasts about the future, not confirmed results.
Sellers have an incentive to keep prices high, and Acer, as a buyer, has an incentive to see procurement prices fall. Even so, once you carefully separate out the target markets, the actual point of contention narrows down—not to SK hynix's own supply capacity or the server/HBM market, but to how much PC-grade general-purpose products are included within the overall market tightness Micron describes.
CXMT Begins Mass Production, and What to Watch to See If Prices Fall in H2 2027
One day after Chen's remarks, on September 20, China's CXMT announced the start of mass production of its fifth-generation DRAM platform (G5) at the World Manufacturing Convention held in Hefei, Anhui Province.
According to the company, the active-area half-pitch is 11.95nm, and die count per wafer has increased more than 50% compared to the previous generation. The company also said it is mass-producing two types of 24Gb LPDDR5X products.
All figures regarding production status and performance come from CXMT's own announcement.
Chen did not name CXMT specifically in his remarks.
He did, however, express a broader view that Chinese memory makers, given their large production capacity and low prices, would act as a force pushing market prices down—arguing that as long as Chinese manufacturers keep expanding capacity, prices cannot keep rising indefinitely.
CXMT's mass-production announcement doesn't directly substantiate Chen's claim, but it can be considered one relevant data point that emerged the very next day.
Lining up developments from the past three months by date produces the following timeline:
| Date | Party | Position | Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 24, 2026 | Micron | Seller | States that supply-demand tightness will persist beyond calendar 2027 |
| July 10, 2026 | SK hynix | Seller | States that 2027 will be extremely difficult on the supply side, with demand exceeding own supply capacity even beyond 2030 |
| July 21, 2026 | ADATA | Seller | TechSpot reports that the chairman said the DRAM shortage could last another decade |
| September 19, 2026 | Acer | Buyer | States that PC-grade DDR4 and mainstream DDR5 are no longer in shortage, and forecasts a PC price peak around mid-2027 |
| September 20, 2026 | CXMT | Supplier | Announces start of fifth-generation DRAM mass production |
In June 2026, Micron said supply-demand tightness would persist beyond 2027; in July, SK hynix forecast that 2027 would be an extremely difficult year on the supply side.
About two months later, on September 19, Acer—on the buyer's side—pushed back, saying PC-grade DDR4 and mainstream DDR5 are "already sufficient." The very next day, CXMT announced the start of fifth-generation DRAM mass production.
So within roughly three months of sellers issuing a string of bullish forecasts, the buyer's side offered a differing view, alongside an announcement of new supply expansion.
The fact that CXMT's mass-produced product is LPDDR5X shares a standard with the memory Chen identified as being in short supply.
However, it remains to be confirmed separately whether this product supports speeds comparable to the LPDDR5X-9600 that was cited as being in shortage. The mere start of LPDDR5X mass production doesn't necessarily mean the shortage of high-performance products has been resolved.
There are three things worth watching to determine whether PC prices will actually turn downward in the second half of 2027.
First, whether contract prices for DDR4 and mainstream DDR5 continue falling through Q1 2027. Second, whether average selling prices among PC makers including Acer actually plateau around mid-2027. And third, whether mass production by Chinese manufacturers like CXMT extends to high-performance products at the LPDDR5X-9600 level.
For anyone in Japan considering when to buy a new PC, these are indicators that could move ahead of actual retail prices.
If all three trends point toward falling prices, then the second-half 2027 price decline that Chen described as a possibility would shift from being a single company's prediction to an outlook backed by actual market conditions.