INTERNATIONAL - Samsung Electronics will increase investment at its chip factory in China by $8 billion to boost production of NAND flash memory chips, Chinese media reported.
The South Korean group’s investment comes as the memory market is expected to rebound next year because of limited supplies and rising demand for fifth-generation devices and networks.
Samsung is the world’s largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, which can hold data permanently and are found in mobile devices, memory cards, USB flash drives and solid-state drives.
In 2017, Samsung announced that it would invest $7 billion over three years in its Xi’an plant that produces NAND flash memory chips.
Those investment phases follow an earlier $10.8 billion investment into a testing and packaging plant in Xi’an.
Samsung declined to comment.
Hwang Chang-gyu (R), president of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business, and his employee show the new 32-Gigabit NAND flash memory card (top in front), chip (bottom in front) and wafer during a news conference in Seoul September 11, 2006. Samsung Electronics Co.Ltd, said it developed the world's first 32-Gigabit NAND flash memory devices. Samsung Electronics will increase investment at its chip factory in China by $8 billion to boost production of NAND flash memory chips, Chinese media reported on Tuesday. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (SOUTH KOREA)
Samsung’s rivals in NAND flash memory include Korea’s SK Hynix (000660.KS), U.S.-based Micron Technology Inc (MU.O), and Toshiba Corp (6502.T)
Several Chinese companies have attempted to enter the memory sector, though none has been successful enough to compete with overseas rivals.
This past autumn, Yangtze Memory Technologies Company (YMTC) announced it would begin mass producing 64-layer 3D NAND chips, the benchmark for most leading industry players.