There are three companies that are immensely benefitting from the exponential demand for memory chips. South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are market leaders whereas US-based Micron is rapidly expanding its market share in third place. All three have now been sued in the United States over allegations that they're effectively operating as a memory cartel by colluding and price-fixing in the memory market. Samsung's mobile division is facing the cost of high memory chips as wellThe lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California by a group of 17 plaintiffs which include individuals and small businesses. They claim that Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have conspired to keep commodity DRAM supply constrained so that prices can rise significantly.It's further claimed that these companies have taken unfair advantage by using high-bandwidth memory demand for AI as an excuse to reduce the output of legacy memory chips, including DDR3 and DDR4. Prices for these commodity chips have increased roughly 700% over the past four years which the plaintiffs claim is a result of this alleged manipulation of the supply chain.The plaintiffs want the court to end this deliberate production squeeze and also award damages. Since the lawsuit has only just been filed, it goes without saying that Samsung and the other companies will contest it rigorously. What matters more is whether any major companies, such as Apple, that are having to raise consumer prices due to a hike in memory costs will join the lawsuit.