AI TRENDS | Pacific Securities Sees Big Tech AI Capex Rising Toward $1 Trillion in 2026

Pacific Securities released an electronics industry research report on June 16, saying global technology giants are accelerating AI-related capital spending and that 2026 could mark a new era of investment approaching $1 trillion. According to Jin10, the report said six major technology companies’ combined capital expenditures exceeded $350 billion in 2025 and were expected to surpass $800 billion in 2026. It added that as large models and related applications continue to penetrate the market, capital spending was expected to keep rising. The report said high-bandwidth memory (HBM) was seeing explosive growth and that the storage price range was expected to continue trending higher. It said the HBM market in 2026 was expected to maintain high double-digit growth, and that current capacity at the three major manufacturers was fully sold out. Pacific Securities also cited Gartner statistics saying that in 2026, DRAM prices were expected to rise 125% and NAND prices were expected to rise 234%, with supply shortages likely to persist for an extended period. On the competitive landscape, the report said SK hynix led the HBM market with about a 60% share. It added that memory was shifting from a cyclical commodity to a strategic resource, and that AI semiconductors accounted for 30% of total revenue.