Samsung reclaims global DRAM revenue lead

Samsung Electronics has reclaimed the top position in the global DRAM market by revenue for the first time in a year, capitalizing on the industry’s largest semiconductor production capacity.

According to market research firm Omdia, Samsung posted $19.156 billion in DRAM revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, a 40.6 percent increase from the previous quarter. The total accounted for 36.6 percent of global DRAM revenue of $52.47 billion during the same period. The company regained the No. 1 ranking one year after ceding the lead to SK hynix in the fourth quarter of 2024.

SK hynix generated $17.226 billion in DRAM revenue in the fourth quarter, up 25.2 percent from the prior quarter. Its market share, however, declined to 32.9 percent from 34.1 percent, leaving it in second place. U.S.-based Micron Technology’s share fell to 22.9 percent from 25.8 percent. China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, expanded its share to 4.7 percent from 3.7 percent.

Analysts said Samsung’s return to the top was fueled by higher prices for conventional DRAM and robust sales of high bandwidth memory, or HBM. The company appears to have capitalized on its large-scale production capacity to drive earnings growth.

Samsung aims to solidify its leadership in the DRAM market with its next-generation HBM4. Designed to deliver speeds of up to 13 gigabits per second, HBM4 is being incorporated into Nvidia’s latest artificial intelligence accelerator, Nvidia Vera Rubin, and has already entered mass production.

As global demand for inference-oriented AI chips accelerates, particularly among major technology companies, shipments of HBM to firms such as Google and Amazon are expected to rise.

In its earnings report last month, Samsung said HBM revenue this year is projected to more than triple from a year earlier.


이동훈기자 dhlee@donga.com