Korean Media: Revenue Surges 445%, Yangtze Memory Technologies Joins Global Top Tier!

On July 7, South Korean media outlet Global Economy published an article stating that driven by increased investments in AI data centers, the NAND flash memory market is booming. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have maintained their global first and second positions, respectively. However, China's Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is accelerating its catch-up, with its market share rising to 13%.

Data released by market research firm Counterpoint Research estimates that the global NAND flash memory market reached approximately $46 billion in the first quarter of this year. This figure represents a 3.5-fold increase compared to the same period last year and a rise of about 90% from the previous quarter—setting a new historical high.

The growth in the NAND flash memory market has been fueled by increased investment in AI infrastructure. Enterprise SSDs accounted for 43% of the total NAND flash memory market volume in the first quarter of this year. It is expected that by year-end, this share will exceed 60%.

Samsung Electronics leads the rankings with a 29% market share, followed closely by SK Hynix with 18%. Samsung’s market share rose from 27% in the fourth quarter of last year to 29% this quarter, while SK Hynix saw its share decline from 22% to 18% over the same period but still retained the second position.

Competition for third place is intensifying. Japan’s Kioxia holds third place with a 14% market share, while Micron Technology (USA), SanDisk (USA), and Yangtze Memory Technologies (China) all hold 13%.

With only about a 1-percentage-point gap between these top-tier companies, the likelihood of ranking changes in the future is increasing.

Yangtze Memory Technologies’ growth stands out particularly. Its market share increased from 8% in the first quarter of last year to 13% in the first quarter of this year—a gain of 5 percentage points. Driven by surging demand in China and supply shortages leading to price increases, its revenue surged by as much as 445% year-on-year.

Counterpoint Research stated: “Yangtze Memory Technologies may surpass Kioxia and Micron to become the world’s third-largest NAND flash memory vendor.”

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870020583076864/

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