Samsung Electronics PCIe 5.0 based high-performance SSD (Solid State Drive) 'PM1743'. /Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics achieved $3.2 billion (4.5868 trillion won) in the global enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) market in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 29% compared to the previous quarter, maintaining a 43.4% market share to hold its first place. Although there were some shipment delays due to production capacity adjustments, there is an analysis that demand for high-capacity models surged, leading to greater-than-expected growth.

According to market research firm TrendForce on the 11th, the revenue for the enterprise SSD market in the third quarter of this year recorded $7.3792 billion (approximately 10.5 trillion won), up 28.6% from the second quarter, driven by strong demand for AI-related applications and skyrocketing prices. TrendForce noted, “Demand for high-capacity models was strong due to the release of NVIDIA's H series products and ongoing orders for AI training servers,” adding, “As a result, the total procurement volume of enterprise SSDs increased by 15% compared to the previous quarter.”

While Samsung Electronics maintained its first place, SK Hynix achieved the highest shipment volume ever through a diverse lineup of AI storage products, maintaining its second place with a third-quarter revenue of $2.058 billion, up 12.8% from the second quarter. TrendForce projected that SK Hynix will maintain stable sales in the fourth quarter with the mass production of the next-generation PCIe 5.0 SSD using 176-layer triple-level cell (TLC) NAND and Solidigm's high-capacity quad-level cell (QLC) SSD.

However, during the same period, its market share recorded a decrease of 3.9 percentage points to 27.9%. This is interpreted as due to the fierce competition from latecomers in the AI NAND market.

Micron, Kioxia, and Western Digital all expanded their revenue and market share. Micron achieved $1.153 billion in third-quarter revenue, a 47.8% increase from the previous quarter, securing third place. Its market share was 15.6%.

Kioxia ranked fourth with revenue increasing 29.8% to $636.2 million and a market share of 8.6%. Western Digital, in fifth place, recorded third-quarter revenue of $332 million, benefiting from increased orders from North American clients. This marked a surge of 102.1% compared to the previous quarter, achieving a market share of 4.5%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points.