Korean Media: Changes in the Semiconductor Landscape ... (South Korea) SK Hynix Surpasses Intel, Ranks Third

AI Boom Drives Memory Prosperity ... Market Restructuring

With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming the standard of the next generation of technology, significant changes have occurred in the global semiconductor industry ranking. Companies that produce AI semiconductors and servers have shown strong performance, while companies mainly producing semiconductors for smartphones, communications, and PCs have lagged behind. In particular, memory semiconductor companies that entered an unprecedented boom since the second half of last year have drawn attention due to their rising sales and industry rankings.

Memory Companies Emerging in the AI Era

On the 13th local time, market research firm Gartner released the "2025 Global Semiconductor Ranking" (calculated by sales). According to this statistics, the total global semiconductor sales in the previous year amounted to 79.3 billion US dollars (approximately 1169 trillion Korean won), which increased by 21% compared to the previous year.

With large technology companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft (MS) greatly expanding their AI infrastructure, the sales of AI semiconductors and memory chips have sharply increased. NVIDIA and Samsung Electronics have maintained the first and second positions in terms of sales, respectively.

The companies that have seen a rise in ranking are SK Hynix and Micron. The semiconductor sales of SK Hynix increased by 37.2% compared to last year, surpassing Intel and moving up to third place. Micron's sales increased by 50.2% during the same period, rising from seventh to fifth place, climbing two positions. The three major memory giants, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, all made it into the top five. SK Hynix ranked third for the first time since 2018, and Micron achieved its first entry into fifth place in history.

With the growth in demand for data centers, not only is the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) unable to meet the demand, but the supply of general-purpose DRAM also cannot keep up with the demand. The price of general DRAM (based on DDR4 8Gb) rose from 1.4 dollars at the beginning of last year to 9.3 dollars at the end of the year. Global investment banks predict that the memory super cycle will continue until 2027, and the operating profit margin (the proportion of operating profit to sales) of general DRAM will enter the "dream range" of over 80%, just like HBM.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm and Broadcom, which dominated the smartphone era, dropped from fifth and sixth to sixth and seventh, each falling one position. Qualcomm is a company that primarily produces APs (application processors) known as the "brain" of smartphones, while Broadcom was the leader in the smartphone communication chip market, but was surpassed by memory companies in the AI era.

Intensified Competition within the Memory Industry

In order to maximize profits, memory companies are expected to engage in fierce competition. Previously, SK Hynix announced on the 13th that it would invest 190 billion Korean won (approximately 9.01 billion Chinese yuan) in Cheongju to build the seventh advanced packaging plant (production facility), while Micron will hold the groundbreaking ceremony for its largest semiconductor production facility in history on the 16th local time in New York State. The prosperity of the memory industry has prompted major companies to start expanding their production capacity.

Micron, which has a similar HBM market share (21%) as Samsung Electronics, plans to build a production facility in New York State, starting from 2030, to produce and supply the most advanced DRAM products in the United States. The total cleanroom area of Micron's new facility is about 223,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of 40 football fields. Domestic South Korean semiconductor industry experts commented, "If Micron can prove its manufacturing capabilities of HBM and DRAM in the United States, American and European customers may increase their weight of Micron's products. This will become a counterbalance to the monopoly of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix."

Chinese semiconductor companies, which have been hindered by U.S. regulations, are also achieving results. Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) launched the latest DRAM products such as server and PC DDR5 products in China last year, and was evaluated as having narrowed the technological gap to 1-2 generations behind South Korea. Changxin Memory Technologies plans to mass-produce HBM3 and HBM3E products starting this year. It is predicted that if Chinese AI semiconductor companies start purchasing in large quantities, their market share may rapidly increase.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original: toutiao.com/article/1854442317063179/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.