Samsung Electronics retained its position as the leading global NAND flash supplier by shipment volume in the second quarter of this year. SK Hynix closely followed, while China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) climbed to third place for the first time. The demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly shifting towards enterprise SSDs (eSSD), altering the competitive landscape of the NAND market from mere shipment volume to high-value products.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, Samsung's market share in global NAND bit shipments was 25% in the second quarter, the highest among competitors. SK Hynix, including its subsidiary Solidigm, held 22%, benefiting from a 40% increase in Solidigm's bit shipments compared to the previous quarter.
Samsung's NAND market share decreased from 32% in the second quarter of 2024 to 25% this year, a drop of 7 percentage points. Counterpoint attributed this decline to Samsung prioritizing the production of relatively more profitable DRAM.
YMTC's rise was notable, achieving a 14% market share, slightly surpassing Japan's Kioxia to enter the global top three for the first time. Its shipments increased by 22% year-on-year and 5% from the previous quarter, attributed to an expanded supply to domestic customers amid a supply shortage.
However, the ranking by shipment volume did not directly translate to revenue competitiveness. While YMTC ranked third in bit shipments, it was fifth in revenue. The lower proportion of high-priced eSSDs for data centers affected its product mix compared to leading companies like Samsung and SK Hynix.
AI is reshaping the NAND market. As AI workloads expand from training to inference, the demand for eSSDs capable of storing and quickly accessing large volumes of data has surged. In the second quarter, eSSDs accounted for 48% of total NAND bit shipments, nearly doubling from 26% in the same period last year.
Counterpoint predicts that by the end of this year, server eSSDs will surpass half of total NAND bit shipments. Consequently, competition among NAND manufacturers is expected to shift from merely supplying volume to increasing the share of ultra-high-capacity and high-performance products for AI data centers, which will determine profitability.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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