Samsung and SK Hynix: How South Korea came to power two-thirds of the world's memory chips - AL Circle

This article explores how South Korea rose to dominate two-thirds of the global memory chip market, primarily through the efforts of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It traces the origins of the Kore... Read original →

South Korea’s dominance in memory chips stems from strategic bets on HBM and EUV that align with AI’s insatiable bandwidth demands. Samsung and SK Hynix’s early ramp of HBM3E and 3nm processes directly dictates the performance ceiling for NVIDIA and AMD’s next-gen AI accelerators. This technical leverage forces Micron into a reactive posture, struggling to match CoWoS-compatible yields—a gap unlikely to close within 12 months. Despite U.S. CHIPS Act subsidies favoring domestic fabs, Korean cost and yield advantages in advanced DRAM/NAND remain unassailable. The planned Yongin cluster could concentrate more leading-edge capacity than Taiwan, China by 2030. Over the next 18 months, HBM’s 40%+ price premium will lock in hyperscaler contracts, further marginalizing Micron and CXMT in high-margin segments.