Sources say Samsung will start reducing the price of memory chips next year to increase its market share.

CTOnews.com, December 28, according to DIGITIMES, sources from IC distributors and test equipment suppliers revealed that although there is still uncertainty in demand, Samsung Electronics is expected to begin to significantly reduce the price of memory chips next year to further increase its share of the global memory chip market.

CTOnews.com learned that the latest reports from research institutions and securities companies show that Samsung's wafer foundry revenue reached $5.584 billion in the third quarter of this year, higher than the $4.3 billion sales of NAND's flash memory business. Foreign media reported that this is the first time that the revenue of Samsung Electronics wafer foundry business has exceeded that of NAND flash memory business.

The reason is, on the one hand, the rapid development of Samsung Electronics wafer foundry business, this mainly benefits from the increased demand for customized chips related to artificial intelligence and 5G communications, the improvement of the rate of quality products in advanced processes, and the enhancement of the competitiveness of mature processes. On the other hand, the NAND flash business suffered a setback, with both demand and prices for NAND flash falling due to falling demand for personal computers and smartphones, with contract prices for NAND flash down 13.9 per cent from the end of last year.

As of the second quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics accounted for 43.5% of the DRAM chip market, followed by South Korea's SK Hynix with 27.4% and Micron Technology of the United States with 24.5%, according to the Korea Times.