Samsung Recovery to Number One Position The tech company regains its top position in the DRAM market
The global memory market just saw a major shift. After a year of playing second fiddle to SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics has officially reclaimed its position as the world leader in the DRAM market. Samsung regained its leading market position during the fourth quarter of last year according to Omdia's updated data which followed a brief historical period of market disruption.
The global DRAM market currently experiences a peak period as total Q4 sales reach 52.47 billion, which marks a 12 billion increase from the previous quarter. The top players during this period performed at the following levels.
- Samsung Electronics The company achieved $19.16 billion in sales which represents a 406% increase and captured 366% of the market.
- SK Hynix The company generated $17.23 billion in sales while its market share decreased to 329% which resulted in a drop to the second position.
- Micron The US based manufacturer saw its share fall to 22.9%.
- CXMT China’s rising star saw a slight increase, moving up to 4.7%.
Samsung had maintained its position as the DRAM leader since 1992 until it lost the title for the first time in 33 years during early 2024. SK Hynix secured its position at the top because it controlled the High Bandwidth Memory HBM sector that supported the AI expansion. Samsung needed to remove HBM4 from their control because they had lost control of the HBM4 sector.
The company achieved success through production and technological improvements that exceeded normal boundaries. Samsung reported a 40% increase in the average selling price (ASP) of its chips. Their achievement resulted from three essential factors.
- HBM3E (5th Gen) Rapidly increasing sales of the latest high bandwidth memory for AI servers.
- The company provided users with high capacity memory products which data centers required through its server grade product line.
- The company provides high performance solutions for mobile devices through its LPDDR5X line which operates with low power consumption.
The company already regained its leading position in the market yet ongoing conflict remains active. The company is now aggressively pivoting toward HBM4 development to ensure they don't lose their lead again. Samsung's production capabilities enable the company to protect its market position against SK Hynix and Micron because they maintain their production capacity at high levels which enables them to provide AI hardware to meet increasing demands.
The shift between AI to manufacturing for Samsung shows that the company successfully transformed its entire manufacturing process to deliver specialized AI services which are required by current technology.
