‘Better Than Gold’: China’s Traders Cash in as Memory Chip Prices Soar

AI demand is tightening memory supply and driving sharp price swings, creating windfalls for traders while forcing China’s tech firms into an increasingly volatile market. Standing beside an open car trunk on a side street in southern China’s tech hub of Shenzhen, Roy Luo runs a quick, practiced eye over the labels on a stack of NAND flash memory chips, the kind vital for phones, computers, and servers.

He has only minutes to decide. Prices can shift without warning, and high-value stock may vanish to another buyer. Luo, a 30-year-old electronics trader, checks his phone, nods once, and wires payment to the seller.

In Huaqiangbei, the world’s largest electronics market, this is how some of the most lucrative deals have been made since last September, as a global shortage of memory chips fuels more speculation.

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