An analysis found that Samsung Electronics reclaimed the No. 1 spot by revenue in the global DRAM market in the third quarter of this year.
According to ChinaFlashMarket (CFM) on the 19th, Samsung Electronics' third-quarter DRAM revenue came in at $13.942 billion, up 29.6% from the previous quarter. Its market share expanded to 34.8%, regaining the top spot by revenue.
CFM said, "In the third quarter, Samsung Electronics' high-bandwidth memory (HBM) bit shipments increased 85% from the previous quarter, and overall DRAM revenue hit a record high on the back of rising prices for commodity DRAM."
During the same period, SK hynix ranked second with DRAM revenue of $13.79 billion and a 34.4% share.
Samsung Electronics had yielded the No. 1 position in the global DRAM market to SK hynix earlier this year due to weak HBM results. However, it has reclaimed the top spot on the back of a recent recovery in the HBM business and rising overall memory prices.
Micron, in third place, posted DRAM revenue of $8.984 billion in the third quarter of this year (June–August), with a market share of 22.4%.
The overall DRAM market size in the third quarter of this year was $40.037 billion, up 24.7% from the previous quarter. It grew 54% compared with the same period last year.
During the same period, the global NAND market rose 16.8% from the previous quarter to $18.422 billion. It fell 3.1% from the same period a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics recorded $5.366 billion in revenue to take the No. 1 market share at 29.1%.
It was followed by SK hynix at $3.536 billion (19.2%), Kioxia at $2.046 billion (16.5%), Western Digital at $2.308 billion (12.5%), and Micron at $2.252 billion (12.2%).
The overall memory market size in the third quarter of this year reached $58.459 billion, a record high.
CFM analyzed, "As artificial intelligence (AI) shifts from the training phase to the inference phase and large cloud service providers continue to invest, memory demand at AI data centers is surging," adding, "It is significantly displacing DRAM and NAND (supply) used in PCs, smartphones, and home appliances, triggering sharp price increases and lifting the global memory market to a record high level."
It added, "Across all applications, memory supply remains severely short, and suppliers' inventory levels continue to decline, pushing up DRAM and NAND prices overall," and projected, "The memory market is expected to hit another record high in the fourth quarter."