Greetings! We are pleased to announce the upcoming start dates for several Tekedia Institute programs:

Tekedia AI Technical Lab – Begins Saturday, March 14, 2026. Register here.

Tekedia Mini-MBA – Registration has opened for the next edition starting in June 2026. Take advantage of the early bird discounts by registering here.

Python Coding with AI for Agentic AI Development – If you have completed Tekedia AI Lab, this program will help you conceptualize solutions and build Python-based AI agents to solve real-world problems. The course begins on April 11, 2026. Register here.

In addition, we offer several other programs including Tekedia AI in Business, Tekedia Startup Masterclass, Tekedia Investment and Portfolio Management, and more. You can explore the full list of Tekedia programs through this link.

The global race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure is reshaping the economics of the memory chip industry, driving record share gains for manufacturers and prompting executives to say a decades-old boom-and-bust cycle may finally be breaking down.

Shares of Micron Technology have surged more than 370% over the past year as demand for AI-related memory accelerates. Meanwhile, SanDisk — which returned to the public market in February last year after being spun out of Western Digital — has soared more than 1,100%, highlighting investor enthusiasm for companies tied to the AI supply chain.

For much of the past three decades, memory manufacturers operated under one of the semiconductor industry’s most volatile cycles. Prices for DRAM and NAND storage would spike during supply shortages, prompting producers to rapidly expand manufacturing capacity. The resulting oversupply would then drive prices down, triggering sharp downturns before the next recovery.

Executives across the technology sector now say artificial intelligence is fundamentally altering that dynamic.

“We will continue to raise prices because the industry will continue to raise prices,” said Antonio Neri, chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “There is not enough supply for demand.”

The shift is being driven by the unprecedented computing requirements of modern AI systems. Training large language models and generative AI platforms requires vast clusters of processors working simultaneously, supported by massive pools of ultra-fast memory. That architecture is dramatically more memory-intensive than traditional computing environments used for enterprise software, personal computers, or smartphones.

High-bandwidth memory, commonly known as HBM, has emerged as one of the most critical components in AI hardware. The technology allows chips to access data far faster than conventional DRAM, making it essential for training large AI models and running advanced inference workloads.

Demand for HBM has surged so rapidly that technology companies are rushing to secure long-term supply contracts.

SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory manufacturers and a major supplier of HBM, said the industry is undergoing structural changes as customers increasingly prefer multi-year supply agreements.

“The company’s customers, including hyperscalers, have increasingly preferred long-term contracts over the one-year agreements that were more common in the past,” an SK Hynix spokesperson said.

Micron Technology has reported a similar shift, telling CNBC that customers are now willing to sign long-term agreements to lock in supply as competition intensifies for AI hardware components.

Those customers include some of the world’s largest technology companies, often referred to as hyperscalers because of the massive scale of their cloud computing infrastructure.

Executives say these companies are reserving memory capacity years in advance.

On the latest earnings call for Broadcom, Chief Executive Hock Tan said the company has already secured supply commitments for key components through 2028 as demand for AI chips and systems accelerates.

Technology giants building their own AI hardware are also confronting supply constraints. Meta Platforms on Wednesday unveiled a new internally designed AI chip as part of its push to expand computing capacity for artificial intelligence workloads.

But even as the company ramps up hardware development, it remains concerned about securing sufficient memory.

“We’re absolutely worried about HBM supply,” said Yee Jiun Song, vice president of engineering at Meta. “But we think that we have secured our supply for what we’re planning to build out.”

The pressure on memory supply is being amplified by a massive wave of capital spending across the technology industry. Major cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI data centers to support the growing demand for generative AI services.

Each of those facilities requires enormous volumes of memory chips to feed data to powerful processors and graphics chips that train and run AI models.

As hyperscalers absorb increasing amounts of available supply, analysts say the balance of the memory market is shifting away from consumer electronics. Manufacturers of smartphones, PCs, and other consumer devices are finding themselves competing with data center operators for the same components, often at higher prices.

An executive at Seagate Technology told the South China Morning Post that memory price increases could become “the new normal” for the next several years. The long lead times required to expand semiconductor manufacturing capacity are reinforcing those expectations.

Building advanced memory fabrication plants costs tens of billions of dollars and can take several years to complete, meaning supply cannot quickly adjust to sudden surges in demand. As a result, industry executives believe meaningful relief from supply constraints may not arrive until at least 2027, when new facilities currently under construction begin operating at full scale.

The emergence of long-term contracts is also changing how the memory industry manages supply and pricing. Historically, most memory was sold on short-term contracts or even spot markets, leaving prices highly sensitive to shifts in demand.

Multi-year agreements with hyperscalers, by contrast, provide greater revenue visibility for manufacturers while ensuring customers receive priority access to scarce components.

That change could smooth the dramatic price swings that once defined the sector. For investors, the sharp rally in memory stocks is an indication that markets are increasingly convinced the industry is entering a new phase — one powered by sustained demand from artificial intelligence rather than the cyclical consumer electronics markets that dominated the past

Escalating tensions in the Middle East have reignited fears of a global oil shock after an Iranian military official warned that crude prices could surge to $200 per barrel as the U.S. continues its military action in the region.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said Tehran may abandon its strategy of retaliatory strikes in favor of sustained attacks on adversaries, including actions that could target oil shipments.

“We won’t allow even one liter of oil to reach the U.S., Zionists (Israel) and their partners. Any vessel or tanker bound to them will be a legitimate target,” said Ebrahim Zolfaqari.

The warning comes as Nigeria insists it will maintain market-based fuel pricing even if global oil markets become more volatile.

Zolfaqari warned that any escalation threatening regional stability would have immediate consequences for energy markets.

“Get ready for the oil barrel to be at $200 because the oil price depends on the regional security which you have destabilized,” he said.

Global energy supply was caught in the crossfire following the involvement of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping corridor through which roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil passes. The disruption to tanker traffic through the waterway triggered a supply shock that has sent energy prices sharply higher.

Energy markets have historically reacted swiftly to instability in the Persian Gulf. Analysts say even the perception of risk to the shipping route tends to push up crude prices as traders price in potential shortages and higher shipping insurance costs.

A surge in oil prices sends ripples across the global economy by raising transportation costs, fueling inflation, and tightening financial conditions.

Nigeria Sticks With Market Pricing

Other nations have been taking measures to curtail the impact of the rising energy costs, as they pose risks of inflation and broader economic downturn. Despite the risks, Nigeria’s government said it would not reintroduce fuel price controls or subsidies.

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the administration of President Bola Tinubu remains committed to allowing market forces to determine petrol prices.

“Rather than now reverting back and taking a backward step, we will look at every other measure that can help the cost of living of Nigerians without resorting to non-market pricing,” Edun said during an interview on Politics Today aired on Channels Television.

The government removed Nigeria’s long-standing petrol subsidy in 2023, arguing that the policy had drained public finances and distorted the energy market.

“It is the market price. That is what has been instilled by Mr. President that was missing for so long, market pricing of petroleum products,” Edun added.

Officials say one of Nigeria’s main buffers against global shocks is the country’s expanding domestic refining capacity.

Edun said the government has moved to increase crude supply to the Dangote Refinery, the 650,000 BPD privately owned refinery built by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote. Authorities believe the refinery’s operations could help stabilize fuel availability in Nigeria by reducing dependence on imported refined products.

“At this time, the resilience that the Nigerian economy has is coming largely from the fact that we do have that investment in refining,” Edun said.

He added that the expansion of local refining capacity has improved Nigeria’s ability to withstand external shocks that have forced some countries to ration fuel supplies during energy crises.

Nigeria historically exported crude oil while importing most of its refined fuel due to inadequate domestic refining capacity, a structural weakness that often amplified the impact of global price swings.

However, energy analysts say local refining capacity may not fully insulate Nigeria from the effects of a major global oil shock.

Even if fuel is refined domestically, the cost of crude oil—the key input—still tracks global market prices. If crude prices surge, the cost of producing petrol locally will also rise, meaning consumers could still face sharply higher pump prices.

The impact could be particularly severe in Nigeria, where unreliable electricity supply forces households and businesses to depend heavily on petrol and diesel generators.

In cities and rural communities alike, millions of Nigerians rely on generators to power homes, shops, and small businesses amid chronic outages from the national grid. If crude prices were to approach $200 per barrel, analysts warn that fuel costs could rise to levels many households and businesses would struggle to afford.

In such a scenario, the economic consequences could extend beyond transport costs, potentially affecting food prices, manufacturing output, and the survival of small enterprises that depend on generator power to operate.

For Nigeria’s government, the situation presents a difficult balancing act: maintaining economic reforms designed to strengthen public finances while cushioning households from the potential fallout of global energy turmoil.

But Edun said direct intervention in fuel pricing would only be considered under extreme circumstances.

“Normally, given the policies and philosophy of this government, it would always have to be a last resort,” he said.