Asia Memory: Too early to be concerned about the cycle peak

Research evidence excerpt

Asia Memory: Too early to be concerned about the cycle peak

14 July 2026

Asia Memory EquitiesSemiconductors &

Equipment

Too early to be concerned about the cycle peak Korea/US

◆ Concern about lack of share price catalysts, but highlighted

Ricky Seo*

HBM and NAND price hikes and SO-CAMM2 demand growth Head of Korea Research, Semiconductor and Display

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

◆ More LTAs and favorable shareholder returns are catalysts Limited, Seoul Securities Branch rickyjuilseo@kr.hsbc.com

+82 2 3706 8777

◆ SK Hynix (Buy) is preferred with higher exposure to HBM

Han Kil Chang*

Research Analyst, Korea Technology

We met +30 investors in Asia during our 6-10 July marketing. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

Limited, Seoul Securities Branch

More concerns, but more catalysts are coming: Most investors were concerned han.kil.chang@kr.hsbc.com

+822 3706 8750

about; 1) a slowdown in memory earnings growth with lower q-o-q price gains from 2H26,

2) Meta joining the cloud server market may be a sign of capex slowdown as well as

* Employed by a non-US affiliate of HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, and is

declining operating cash flow and rising financing activities at the four major US CSPs, not registered/ qualified pursuant to FINRA regulations

3) impact of more aggressive capacity expansion on supply/demand along with recent

mega investment announcement, 4) high memory bill of material (BOM) costs pressure

lowering potential demand as it could lead to de-specing and less content, 5) potential

delay in new tech adoption may dampen demand while lowering memory content in Vera

CPU, and 6) Chinese competitors are aggressive in financing for new capacity

investment. Diminishing share price catalysts were a major discussion topic.