The semiconductor memory market is once facing drastic shortages, mainly due to a surge in AI demand, that is pulling capacity toward HBM, DRAM and NAND solutions. Device makers see lead times increase and prices increased sharply. To understand what is really happening in the market and where MRAM fits into the picture, we spoke with Sean Dougherty of Everspin Technologies.

Sean Dougherty is vice president of sales at Everspin Technologies, where he leads global revenue-generating activities across product sales, foundry services and strategic partnerships. He oversees Everspin’s worldwide sales and application engineering teams, helping customers design next-generation MRAM devices into demanding commercial, industrial, aerospace and other high-reliability applications.

Q: We’re seeing a lot of focus on memory shortages again, especially tied to AI demand. From your perspective, what’s actually happening in the market right now?

What we’re seeing today is different from the last supply crisis. During that period, many were suddenly line-down on many semiconductor products at the same time.

GlobalFoundries reported its Q1 2026 financial results, with $1.63 billion in revenues, and a net profit of $227 million. The company reported its design wins increased 50% over Q1 2025 - including automotive MRAM (and microLED) wins.

GF says that it is seeing strong momentum for auto-grade embedded MRAM capability on FDX, describing "industry-leading 100 MHz class access times" and endurance and reliability. The company reported that lead customers have taped out with the MRAM feature and cited growing engagement with tier-one suppliers including Bosch as it moves toward production.

Custom AI ASIC solutions provider SEMIFIVE, together with China-based AI semiconductor developer ICY Tech, announced the successful tape-out of its next-generation Edge AI SoC jointly developed utilizing Samsung Foundry's 8nm (8LPU) embedded MRAM technology. The two companies say that this is a significant milestone toward the first commercial deployment of 8nm eMRAM technology in Asia.

SEMIFIVE that by integrating eMRAM into its Edge AI accelerator, it aims to reinforce its technical leadership in the ultra-low-power, high-performance inference market. 

Everspin Technologies has entered into a $40 million 30-months defense subcontract agreement with Amentum Services Inc. to support the U.S. government’s Microelectronics Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) program. 

Everspin updates that the contract aims to establish proven processes and manufacturing capabilities for new Toggle MRAM. Under the agreement, Everspin will manage the program and develop on-shore Toggle MRAM production capability.

Everspin Technologies reported its financial results for Q1 2026, with revenues of $14.9 million (up from $13.1 in Q1 2025), and a non-GAAP net income of $2.6 million. 

Everspin says that its excellent first quarter results (at the high-end of their guidance) were driven by strength in Industrial Automation, Transportation, and Data Center applications. The company says it is starting to see a recovery in customer demand especially in Japan as inventory levels have been worked down. 

Samsung Electronics announced that it is the world's first company to successfully developed an 8 nm process for next-generation MRAM production, and has achieved yields suitable for mass production.

Samsung says that its new 8nm MRAM demonstrated a 62.5% faster write speed and an 11.5% higher density compared to its previous 14nm generation, while also meeting the highest automotive-grade reliability standards under extreme conditions. 

Vertical Compute, MRAM for AI technology developer, raised $67 million. This round was led by Quantonation and included many investors, including Flanders Future Techfund (PMV), Wallonie Entreprendre, Sambrinvest, Noshaq, invest.bw, Drysdale Ventures, Kima Ventures, Eurazeo, XAnge, VCT Vector Gestion SA, imec.xpand, imec, VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Bpifrance.

Verticle Compute was spun off imec, and develops technology to stack memory directly above compute logic. In 2025, the company said that it develops MRAM in-memory computing chiplet technology. The chiplet, according to the company, can reduce power consumption by 80% and speed up the execution of large language models for AI by 100X. It is believed that the company's MRAM is based on SOT-MRAM technology.

Everspin Technologies announced that it has signed a strategic manufacturing agreement with Microchip Technology to expand its MRAM production capacity and strengthen long-term supply.

Everspin entered into a 10-year agreement (that can be extended in 2-year increments) to onshore US manufacturing capacity for MRAM and Tunnel Magnetoresistive (TMR) sensor products.

The MRAM industry is growing, as adoption of MRAM memory solutions is on the rise, and new technologies are being developed to increase capacity and performance. Here are some recent and popular news that you may find of interest:

• GlobalFoundries now offers Auto Grade 1 ready eMRAM technology on its FDX platform
• Everspin introduces a new MRAM code and data unified memory for embedded systems
• Avalanche develops a 22 nn process node, as it aims to increase its MRAM memory density by 16X
• Avalanche filed a lawsuit against Everspin, saying it infringes upon 4 of its MRAM patents
• Truth Memory Corporation developed the world's first 8Mb SOT-MRAM 110 nm chip
• Researchers develop the most advanced MRAM free layer to date
• Researchers from Intel and Georgia Tech design a 7 nm SOT-MRAM device
• Renesas introduces the new RA8M2 and RA8D2 MCUs with 1Mb embedded MRAM
• Researchers from TSMC, ITRI, Stanford and YMCT developed a 64-kilobit SOT-MRAM
• TSMC to develop 5 nm MRAM technology in Europe, targeting automotive AI applications
• Researchers demonstrate the world's lowest write power SOT-MRAM device
• Vertical Compute raises 20 million Euro to develop MRAM-based solutions for AI
• Samsung details its eMRAM roadmap with 5 nm expected by 2027
• MRAM-based memory architecture could accelerate AI by a factor of 1000
• Leading the Charge in MRAM: An Interview with Everspin's CEO
• Kioxia and Hynix co-develop the world's smallest 1Selector-1MTJ cell
• IBM's next-gen FlashCore modules to feature Everspin's 1 Gbg STT-MRAM

GlobalFoundries announced the availability of Auto Grade 1 ready embedded MRAM (eMRAM) technology on the company’s ultra-low power FDX platform. GF says that this is a key enhancement to its portfolio of non-volatile memory technologies and AutoPro platform of automotive-ready solutions.

The new FDX+AutoPro150 eMRAM technology delivers essential advantages over competitive industry grade memories, including proven endurance up to 500k cycles, sub-10 nanosecond read speed, and superior scalability for larger memory density. The technology is designed to address known magnetic field effects and qualified for reliable operation in harsh environments up to 150°C, enabling high-performance, system-on-chip (SoC) solutions that meet the demands of critical automotive applications.