Daily Views on Tech Headlines | Samsung, Memory, TPUs I/O

Research evidence excerpt

Daily Views on Tech Headlines | Samsung, Memory, TPUs I/O

Quick Note

May 20, 2026 Hardware

Analysts

Matt Bryson

(617) 695-6302 Samsung, Memory: Samsung strike set to begin after last-ditch talks failmatthew.bryson@wedbush.com

Antoine Legault, CFA, CPA View: Samsung Electronics' largest labor union said it will proceed with an 18-

(626) 497-1619 day strike beginning May 21 after last-ditch government-mediated talks failed toantoine.legault@wedbush.com

resolve a dispute over performance-based bonuses. Note that a one-day strike

in April purportedly impacted foundry output by 60% and memory production

by nearly 20% perhaps providing some insight into the extent of disruption the

proposed strike might have on semiconductor operations.

Memory Implications: We would note that any meaningful production slowdown

would create further supply constraint in what is an already unprecedentedly tight

market. As such,

● While currently industry pricing increases are expected to slow into CQ3,

upward momentum might prove more sustained than we had expected with

positive implications for Samsung's peers (if not Samsung).

● Industries most affected by memory constraints and price hikes (handsets and

PCs) could see further pressure.

Foundry: Samsung is its own largest foundry customer; as such, we believe any

disruption in foundry output likely weighs predominantly on Samsung CE products,

though if device builds are permanently impacted, the result could have negative

implications for other vendors supplying into Samsung handsets, TVs, etc. Reuters,

CNBC, Fortune

Google I/O, TPUs, Compute, Mature Foundry: AI announcements and hardware

demand implications

View: Gemini demand/output has reached all-time highs (9.7T tokens/month) with