Under attack from China, the US and local competitors, Samsung Electronics faces severe challenges in the field of memory chips

According to BusinessKorea, Samsung Electronics has maintained its No. 1 position in the global DRAM and NAND flash memory markets for 30 and 20 years, respectively. However, chipmakers in both China and the United States have begun to threaten their technological leadership.

According to the report, Micron Technology, the largest storage semiconductor company in the United States, announced the mass production of the world's first 232-layer NAND flash memory in July 2022, when Samsung Electronics was working on 176-layer NAND flash memory. The head of a Canadian semiconductor consulting company even claimed that China's Yangtze River Storage produced 232-layer NAND flash memory before Micron.

In addition, Korean local competitor SK Hynix also announced last year that it has successfully developed the world's most layered (238 layers) NAND flash memory. Samsung Electronics will begin mass production of 236-layer NAND flash memory in November 2022.

Currently, Samsung Electronics is in the leading position in the DRAM and NAND flash memory markets, with a market share gap of more than 10 percent with its competitors. As of the third quarter of 2022, the DRAM market is led by the "Big Three" - Samsung Electronics (40.6%), SK Hynix (29.9%) and Micron (24.8%). In the NAND flash memory market, Samsung Electronics (31.6%), Kioxia (21.1%), SK Hynix (19%), Western Digital (12.4%), and Micron (11.8%) compete fiercely.

Despite the wide gap in market share, rivals are rapidly eroding Samsung's technological dominance. "It is reported that the quality of YMTC's 232-layer NAND is unexpectedly high, so Samsung is very concerned about and interested in it." An industry insider said.

In addition, an industry analyst said: "In the memory field, Samsung is being caught up by latecomers, while in the foundry business, TSMC is far ahead. Samsung is facing a huge challenge."