Reports: Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance Negotiate Up to 10-Year Memory Supply Deals with Samsung and SK Hynix
Chinese tech giants seek to lock in Korean memory capacity via long-term agreements to address domestic reliability gaps and Micron's market exit.
According to a report by South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper on October 27, 2026, Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are negotiating long-term supply agreements (LTAs) of up to 10 years with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to secure DRAM and NAND flash memory for their AI data centers.
The report notes that while Chinese domestic memory manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is rapidly expanding capacity, Korean suppliers still hold an advantage in high-performance DDR and LPDDR technologies required for AI servers, as well as in mass-production stability. An executive at a server company stated that AI data centers demand extremely high reliability for 24/7 operation, and there remains a significant performance gap between CXMT's server DRAM and products from Samsung and SK Hynix.
Additionally, US-based Micron Technology announced its exit from the Chinese market in 2025 following government restrictions, further pushing Chinese firms toward Korean suppliers. SemiAnalysis statistics indicate China has built at least 24GW of AI data center capacity, second only to the US's 56GW, with another ~20GW under construction or planned. Tight supply has also driven the adoption of LTAs; Samsung plans to allocate at least 70% of its capacity to LTA customers, and KB Securities estimates that approximately 80% of Samsung's planned 2027 memory output is already locked in through long-term contracts.