As Samsung, SK Battle Over HBM, China Eats Into Commodity Memory Market - Seoul Economic Daily

This report reveals significant shifts in the global semiconductor memory market landscape. The intense competition between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix over high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology... Read original →

The HBM arms race between Samsung and SK Hynix is accelerating TSV and advanced packaging innovation upstream, while forcing AI chipmakers downstream to rebalance performance against supply chain redundancy. Simultaneously, Chinese memory makers—leveraging scaled mature-node capacity—are undercutting commodity DRAM segments like DDR4/LPDDR, directly pressuring Korean margins. U.S. export controls have slowed but not halted China’s progress beyond 20nm nodes. Over the next 12–24 months, Korean giants will likely adopt a “premium-lock, mid-tier retreat” posture, while Chinese firms capitalize on domestic demand from servers and EVs to transition from volume capture to tech escalation. The global memory industry is shifting from a technology monoculture to a bifurcated equilibrium—where geopolitical compliance costs now rival R&D as the second-largest operational burden.