YMTC Enters Global Top Three in NAND Market

According to market research firm Counterpoint, Chinese memory chip manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) entered the global top three in the NAND flash market for the first time in the second quarter of this year, based on shipment volume.

Counterpoint reported that Samsung remained the market leader with a 25% shipment share, followed by SK hynix at 22%. YMTC ranked third with a 14% share, narrowly surpassing Kioxia, while Micron ranked behind the Japanese memory manufacturer.

By revenue, however, YMTC ranked fifth globally, behind Micron and Kioxia. Counterpoint attributed the difference to YMTC's current product mix, which remains more concentrated in consumer applications, while its share of higher-priced enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) for data centers is relatively limited.

The report highlighted artificial intelligence (AI) as a key factor shaping NAND flash demand. As AI workloads shift from model training toward inference, demand is increasing rapidly for high-speed, low-power storage solutions capable of handling key-value (KV) cache and large datasets.

With servers expected to account for the largest share of overall NAND consumption, Counterpoint projects that by 2027, NAND manufacturers' profitability will depend less on total shipment volume and more on their ability to offer an optimized product mix that matches emerging AI and data center requirements.

Counterpoint also noted that, supported by increasingly diverse sources of capital, YMTC plans to further shift its product portfolio toward enterprise SSDs in the second half of this year. The move is aimed at strengthening the company's position among the world's top three NAND flash manufacturers.