Record-high pricing pushes SSD and memory makers to borrow $880 million just to afford buying chips — Adata, TeamGroup, and others take on substantial debt to survive shortages

Several Taiwanese memory module manufacturers, including Adata and TeamGroup, are collectively raising more than NT$28 billion (approximately $880 million) through convertible bonds, syndicated bank loans, and private share placements to fund chip purchases, according to a report from Taiwan's Commercial Times. The fundraising reflects how expensive it has become for downstream companies to maintain adequate inventory as DRAM and NAND flash contract prices continue to rise quarter after quarter.

Adata is the largest single borrower in the group, having completed a NT$2 billion convertible bond issuance and secured NT$12 billion in bank loans, and is planning a 30 million-share private placement, per the outlet’s reporting.

GoldKey Technology raised NT$4.5 billion through a combination of bonds and loans, while Team Group and Apacer completed NT$2 billion and NT$1 billion convertible bond issuances, respectively. Innodisk and Transcend are each planning NT$3 billion in convertible bonds, and Silicon Power is preparing a NT$500 million issuance.

It’s frankly astounding that these highly profitable companies are having to raise capital at this scale just to secure a sufficient chip inventory. In March, Adata’s revenue exceeded NT$10 billion for the first time, and its Q1 total of NT$26.11 billion more than doubled year over year, according to the company's monthly revenue disclosures. Meanwhile, Team Group posted NT$4.92 billion in revenue in the same month, a 326% sequential increase. The Commercial Times noted that several module makers' cumulative revenue through April had already surpassed their full-year 2025 totals.

Fundraising efforts are being driven by the sheer cost of maintaining chip inventory during a sustained price surge. Adata chairman Simon Chen told the Taipei Times in March that the company had accumulated NT$30 billion worth of chip inventory by the end of February and was targeting more than NT$35 billion by the end of March. He also said cloud service providers had recently approached Adata to sign long-term supply agreements, which he described as "a rare occurrence."

Contract prices have risen sharply across every memory category in the last year. TrendForce has estimated that conventional DRAM contract prices rose 90% to 95% quarter over quarter in Q1 2026, with a further 58% to 63% increase expected in Q2. NAND flash contracts climbed roughly 60% in Q1, and TrendForce projected a 70% to 75% increase for Q2. More recent TrendForce data from early May revised mobile DRAM pricing for Q2 upward to 93% to 98% quarter over quarter, as Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix finalize negotiations with customers.

Memory manufacturers continue to prioritize high-margin server DRAM and HBM production over consumer and mobile applications, and new fab capacity isn’t expected to come online in volume before late 2027 at the earliest.

Module makers, which buy finished chips from those manufacturers and assemble them into DIMMs, SSDs, and other products, have limited ability to influence allocation; stockpiling inventory through debt financing is one of the few levers available to them.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.