Last quarter, the global semiconductor industry witnessed a nearly 30% increase in DRAM revenue compared to the previous quarter. According to TrendForce, a market research firm based in Taiwan, on March 5, global DRAM revenue reached US$17.46 billion in the fourth quarter, marking a 29.6% growth from the previous quarter. TrendForce attributed this growth to “the inventory stockpiling efforts and strategic production adjustments of leading industry manufacturers.”
Samsung Electronics, the world leader in the DRAM sector, experienced a significant boost in its fourth-quarter revenue, reaching US$7.95 billion. This increase was fueled by a surge of over 60% in server-use DRAM shipments resulting in a 51.4% growth rate compared to the previous quarter. Consequently, Samsung’s market share rose from 38.9% in the third quarter to 45.5% in the fourth quarter.
TrendForce forecasts that Samsung’s production will rebound in the first quarter of this year, reaching an 80% utilization rate, and anticipates a substantial increase in demand in the second half of the year, which will continuously enhance production capacity through the fourth quarter.
SK hynix, ranking second, posted a 20.2% increase in DRAM revenue to US$5.56 billion from the previous quarter. However, its market share dropped by 2.5 percentage points, from 34.3% in the third quarter to 31.8% in the fourth quarter.
Micron, in third place, had a relatively modest increase of 8.9% in its revenue, reaching US$3.35 billion in the third quarter. Its market share decreased from 22.8% to 19.2%, a decline of 3.6 percentage points.