Samsung Electronics widened its lead over No. 2 SK hynix by increasing sales in the enterprise solid-state drive (eSSD) market, where profitability is soaring alongside expanded investment in artificial intelligence (AI).
According to market researcher TrendForce on the 5th, third-quarter sales for the top five eSSD brands came to $6.54 billion, up 28.0% from the previous quarter.
TrendForce said, "As North American cloud service providers (CSPs) simultaneously expand AI infrastructure and general-purpose servers, it has led to a significant rise in eSSD shipments and prices," and noted, "In the fourth quarter, the average contract price of eSSDs is expected to rise more than 25% from the previous quarter."
Above all, Samsung Electronics' sales growth stood out. In the second quarter, Samsung Electronics' eSSD sales growth rate was limited to a 0.5% increase from the previous quarter, but in the third quarter it jumped 28.6% to about $2.44 billion. Its market share also rose by 0.5 percentage point, from 34.6% to 35.1%, keeping it at No. 1.
SK hynix, including its subsidiary Solidigm, achieved about $1.86 billion, up 27.3%. Its market share rose 0.1 percentage point to 26.8%, maintaining second place. The gap in market share between the two companies narrowed sharply from 18.8 percentage points in the first quarter to 7.9 percentage points in the second quarter, but widened again to 8.3 percentage points in the third quarter.
No. 4 Kioxia of Japan saw sales surge more than 30% to about $978 million, quickly closing in on No. 3 Micron ($991 million). No. 5 SanDisk was tallied at $269 million.