Samsung Restarts P4H Hybrid NAND/DRAM Line

According to reports, Samsung Electronics has confirmed that NAND Flash production equipment is being installed at its Pyeongtaek Plant 4 (P4) in South Korea. Plans previously delayed due to a slow market are now gradually resuming.

The P4H line was originally designed for NAND production, but in 2025, Samsung adjusted its strategy to a hybrid setup producing both DRAM and NAND, renaming the line from P4F (Flash) to P4H (Hybrid). Current configurations allocate around 10,000–12,000 NAND wafers, with the remaining capacity dedicated to DRAM.

Samsung has increasingly focused on DRAM investment in recent years, reflecting NAND’s prolonged market weakness. NAND faces intense competition, volatile pricing, and narrower profit margins. AI-focused data center spending has largely prioritized DRAM, as NAND demand in AI workloads remains limited, further contributing to market softness.

However, AI-driven demand is beginning to influence the NAND market. Extended HDD lead times are encouraging cloud service providers to adopt more enterprise SSDs (eSSD), while NVIDIA’s proposed in-context memory storage (ICMS) concept could further boost NAND needs.

Insiders report that Samsung has carefully evaluated the P4H NAND line. Equipment installation has started, supporting V10 NAND production. Additional investments are planned at the Xi’an plant and Pyeongtaek Plant 2 (P2), including potential upgrades of mature NAND nodes to V8 and V9. These projects could begin as early as Q2 2026.

As market conditions improve, industry observers anticipate further NAND expansion. Samsung may optimize production lines to increase capacity during process transitions, positioning itself to meet future demand.