Meritz Securities of South Korea has noted that memory chip manufacturers have received orders for 2027-2028 that far outstrip their production capacity. Even if Democrats gain an edge following the U.S. midterm elections—prompting delays and adjustments in certain data center projects—the fundamental memory chip shortage is unlikely to be reversed. This year, the order fulfillment rate for memory chips has remained at a persistently low 80%–85%, driving substantial price hikes; the supply-demand gap is expected to widen further in 2027, with the fulfillment rate potentially falling to around 80%. During a recent visit to South Korea, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed to SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics a demand scale for customized memory products such as HBM for 2027–2030 that exceeds even the two companies' available production capacity. Samsung disclosed during a conference call with Meritz on October 29 that 10 major customers have already signed multi-year memory supply agreements, with an equal number of customers currently in negotiations; memory demand customers have expanded beyond cloud service giants and AI server manufacturers into more sectors, and the slowdown in U.S. data center approvals will affect only some orders and cannot alter the overall tight supply-demand landscape.