Samsung Electronics is negotiating long-term memory chip supply agreements with Google and Microsoft, with upfront payments potentially exceeding $10 billion, as tech giants race to lock in stable supplies for their AI data centres.
According to EBN News, the deals under discussion would fix purchase volumes over three to five years while linking prices to spot market rates, with adjustments triggered if prices drift outside a pre-agreed range. The key difference from earlier supply agreements is enforceability: large upfront deposits would be forfeited if purchase targets are not met, closing the loophole that allowed customers to walk away from similar deals struck around 2019.
Samsung is not alone in pursuing this model. Micron Technology has already announced its first five-year Strategic Customer Agreement, disclosed in its latest quarterly results, and has unveiled capital expenditure plans exceeding $25 billion for fiscal year 2026, nearly double the prior year, citing improved demand visibility as a direct driver.
Analysts say the shift toward long-term contracts reflects a structural change in the memory chip market. As next-generation high-bandwidth memory such as HBM4 requires deeper collaboration between chipmakers and customers from the design stage, the case for multi-year agreements is growing stronger. If the model takes hold across the industry, it could provide an unprecedented demand anchor for a sector historically plagued by boom-and-bust cycles driven by capacity overexpansion and volatile demand.
Industry sources cited by EBN News expect major memory suppliers to finalise long-term supply agreements with big tech companies in the first half of this year.
