According to DIGITIMES, sources at IC distributors and test equipment suppliers have revealed that Samsung Electronics is expected to start significantly reducing memory chip prices next year to further increase its share of the global memory chip market, although uncertainties on the demand side still exist.
The latest reports from research institutions and securities companies show that Samsung Electronics’ foundry business revenue reached US$5.584 billion in the third quarter of this year, higher than the US$4.3 billion sales of the NAND flash memory business. Foreign media reported that this is the first time that the revenue of Samsung Electronics’ wafer foundry business has exceeded that of the NAND flash memory business.
The reason is, on the one hand, the rapid development of Samsung Electronics’ wafer foundry business, which mainly benefits from the increase in demand for customized chips related to artificial intelligence and 5G communications, the improvement of the yield rate of advanced manufacturing processes, and the improvement of the competitiveness of mature manufacturing processes And other factors. On the other hand, the NAND flash memory business suffered setbacks. Due to the decline in demand for personal computers and smartphones, both the demand and price of NAND flash memory fell. Among them, the contract price of NAND flash memory fell by 13.9% compared with the end of last year.
As of the second quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics had a 43.5 percent share of the DRAM chip market, followed by South Korea’s SK Hynix with 27.4 percent and U.S. Micron Technology with about 24.5 percent, according to The Korea Times.
