Memory Chip Shortage Persists, AI Outlook Still Strong, Says RBC Wealth Management

On July 21, 2026, CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia caught up with Gautam Chadda, executive director at RBC Wealth Management, to get his take on the lingering memory‑chip squeeze that’s been making headlines.

Chadda doesn’t mince words: the bottleneck in the high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) market is likely to stick around for another six to twelve months. In plain‑English, chip manufacturers simply can’t churn out enough of the ultra‑fast DRAM that powers today’s AI accelerators, and that gap isn’t expected to close any time soon.

What does that mean for the broader AI story? According to Chadda, not much changes. “The AI thesis remains intact,” he says, noting that enterprises and cloud providers are still ploughing money into AI‑infrastructure projects. Even if supply tightens, demand for the underlying hardware – and the memory that makes it run – stays stubbornly high.

He also touched on a separate, but related, market wobble: recent volatility in South Korean equities. While some investors have been quick to blame a cooling AI trade, Chadda points to more technical drivers – leveraged‑ETF flows, margin‑loan unwinds and the like – rather than a fundamental dip in AI demand.

In short, the memory‑chip scarcity is a supply‑side headache, not a sign that the AI boom is losing steam. For investors watching the sector, the takeaway is clear: keep an eye on HBM inventories, but don’t expect the AI rally to evaporate any time soon.