Memory Takes 64% of AI Budgets by 2027, UBS Says
UBS raised its forecast for AI capital spending. Global AI capex now reaches $998B this year and $1.45T in 2027.
The increase is not coming from new data centers. Memory spending runs to $367B this year and $923B next year. Roughly 90% of the $1 trillion increase between 2025 and 2027 comes from memory prices.
Memory was 14% of the total budget in 2025. It becomes 37% this year and 64% next year.
The market did not read this as a capacity story. It read it as a price story.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on Tuesday that memory prices have risen five to seven times. Micron chief business officer Sumit Sadana expects 2027 to be tighter than 2026.
The second story sits at the end of the same chain. Sandisk rose 11.9% on Friday to close at $1,740. The stock joins the S&P 100 before Monday's open, alongside Dell Technologies, Palo Alto Networks and Arista Networks.
Sandisk is up more than 600% this year, the best performance in the S&P 500.
