A contract price is a negotiated price for memory bought under a supply agreement, usually between a chipmaker and a large customer such as a PC maker or a data center operator. Contract prices are typically agreed monthly or quarterly and move in steps.
Contract prices drive most of a memory maker's revenue, so they matter more for earnings than spot prices. They lag spot prices, and trackers publish them as forecasts and averages that are not the same as any one company's realized price.
TrendForce forecasts, compiled by Capital & Compute, put conventional DRAM contract prices up about 93% to 98% from the previous quarter in the first quarter of 2026, 58% to 63% in the second, 13% to 18% in the third and 10% to 15% in the fourth. SK hynix's own DRAM average selling price rose in the high-20% range in the third quarter, higher than the industry index partly because of its mix of HBM4 and server products.
Compare a maker's reported prices with the industry contract-price forecasts, and remember that mix explains part of the gap.