Memory is becoming a national security priority, SK chair warns

Memory is transitioning from a commoditized component to a focal point of geopolitical tech rivalry. The AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth, low-latency storage compels governments to classify DRAM and NAND as strategic assets, disrupting upstream sectors like equipment, EDA, and advanced packaging. Compliance costs will surge as U.S.-Japan-Netherlands export controls and localization mandates force non-Chinese firms to increase supply chain redundancy by over 30%. In response to CXMT’s entry into global supply chains with its 232-layer 3D NAND, Samsung and SK Hynix are likely to accelerate 'de-risked' fabs in India and Vietnam while leveraging HBM4 to widen the technology gap. Over the next 18 months, the industry will bifurcate: China will prioritize mature-node scaling and chiplet integration, while Western players bet on processing-in-memory architectures. This race is no longer about market share—it’s about who defines the data-access paradigm underpinning next-gen AI infrastructure.