According to foreign media reports, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated in a recent interview that he believes the likelihood of an oversupply in the DRAM market around 2029 is low.
According to South Korean media reports, driven by a recent surge in customer orders, Samsung Electronics' foundry division has effectively utilized the full capacity of its 4nm process and is actively courting new customers for its 5nm process to improve production line utilization and profitability. Although contract negotiations with major customers for its cutting-edge 2nm process have been delayed, the company will focus on its 4nm and 5nm processes in the near term to raise capacity utilization, and industry observers expect the move to help improve its short-term performance.
According to industry sources cited by South Korean media, Samsung Electronics is internally developing three types of z-NAND flash memory. In addition to zNAND-O, for which its model has already been publicly demonstrated, these also include zNAND-T and zNAND-I. It is reported that zNAND-T is designed for high throughput, featuring maximized bandwidth to meet the needs of high-capacity, high-performance AI data centers. zNAND-I, meanwhile, maximizes IOPS. Although wider bandwidth allows large amounts of data to be processed at once, higher IOPS means more data I/O operations can be completed per second.
On September 23 (local time), the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to institute a Section 337 investigation into certain dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices and downstream products and components (III).
According to a report by Korean media outlet ZDNet, Solidigm, a subsidiary of SK Hynix, is considering constructing its first NAND flash memory production base in the United States. The company is currently in the stage of coordinating detailed plans, including factory site selection and investment timing.
According to media reports, Micron expects to assemble and test tens of millions of chips in 2026 at its first Semiconductor assembly and test plant in India (the Sanand plant), and to expand capacity to hundreds of millions of units in 2027. Micron CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, said that the plant's current output capacity already exceeds the memory required by India's laptop market. Finished DRAM and NAND products were now leaving Micron's facility in Sanand, Gujarat, for customers around the world with the "Made in India" label.
According to Korean media reports, Samsung plans to break away from its previous model of relying entirely on its in-house foundry division for Base Die production. Instead, it is adopting a “dual-track” strategy that also leverages TSMC’s process technology to manufacture Base Dies.
According to Korean media reports citing industry sources, Samsung has decided to outsource the increased production of DDR5 modules and SSDs for PCs, servers, and laptops entirely to Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) partners, rather than expanding its in-house capacity. This move aims to concentrate limited internal resources on high value-added memory products like HBM.
According to media reports, Intel CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, expects the memory supply shortage to become more severe next year due to growing AI demand. He noted that some memory prices have already climbed five to seven times and many corporations are slow to expand their businesses because they can't secure enough memory. He explained that as demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI surges, pressure is growing on the supply of commodity DRAM as well. In addition, Lip-Bu Tan stressed the importance of advanced packaging technology, emphasizing that CPU, AI accelerators, HBM, and I/O chips should be connected within a single package to shorten data travel distance and improve processing speed and power efficiency. Intel is targeting the AI Semiconductor market with its own advanced packaging technology, EMIB.
Micron Technology has announced the successful demonstration of the world's first 512GB DDR5 module on multiple server platforms. Leading Semiconductor enablers, AMD and Intel, are both actively validating the module, which will deliver speeds up to 9,200 MT/s. Micron expects 512GB RDIMMs to be in volume production sometime in the second half of 2027 aligned to customer needs.
Citing mobile communications industry sources, South Korean media reported that a certain mobile carrier has notified retailers that the retail prices of all Galaxy S26 series models will be raised uniformly by 149,600 Korean won starting October 1. Industry insiders believe that Samsung Electronics may find it difficult to maintain its existing pricing structure due to recent rise in mobile application processor unit price, the burden of memory Semiconductor cost brought by high-performance on-device AI feature, and the continued impact of high exchange rates. Samsung Electronics is said to be cautious about officially confirming the retail prices of the Galaxy S26 series.
Driven by large-scale orders from U.S. big techs such as Tesla and Broadcom, Samsung Taylor foundry plant in Texas, U.S., which will begin trial operations as early as the end of this month, has already reached 'full capacity' with its scheduled production volume fully booked as 2nm orders continue to roll in. The 2nm yield (the ratio of non-defective products), which was at the 60% level early this year, is known to have recently reached the 80% range capable of mass production. It is said that the Taylor plant will begin mass production next year.
According to industry sources cited by Korea's ChosunBiz, Sthe share of 1c DRAM at SK hynix expanded from around 10% in the first quarter this year to the 13% range in the second quarter. It is forecast to rise to the 24% range in the third quarter and the 34% range in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of next year, the 1c share is expected to climb into the 35% range, surpassing 1b (33% range) for the first time to become the main process. Furthermore, unlike Samsung, which plans to adopt 1c DRAM starting from HBM4, SK hynix chose a strategy prioritizing mass-production stability with proven 1b DRAM and advanced MR-MUF packaging technology, and first applied 1c DRAM as the core HBM chip starting with HBM4E.
According to South Korean media, Dealsite, SK hynix is stepping up investment in its Semiconductor production base in the southwestern Gwangju region. It is said that the company is internally exploring a plan to pursue investments in both the Yongin Semiconductor cluster and Gwangju in parallel. Since the Yongin project involves long-term investment and construction work, the company is developing a coordinated strategy that takes into account the actual conditions in Gwangju while advancing investment alongside the concentrated investment in Yongin. Sources indicate that discussions are currently focused on whether to allocate some equipment originally planned for the new Yongin fab to Gwangju, or to place additional new equipment orders for Gwangju, with the final decision depending on the situation.
According to South Korean media reports, South Chungcheong Province announced that the Provincial Urban Planning Committee has completed the necessary deliberations on Samsung Electronics' plan to expand its Semiconductor manufacturing facility at the Asan Onyang campus. The expansion project, representing an investment of 6 trillion Korean won, involves constructing a new plant on a 389,825-square-meter site within the Onyang complex to ramp up production of high-performance AI Semiconductors such as HBM. The investment is said to be the first of three Mega Projects for South Korea Great Leap Forward. Samsung Electronics plans to begin construction on the new factory next month, though the completion date has not yet been announced.