This Company Broke Samsung’s 33-Year DRAM Market Dominance
Contents
Summary: Samsung continues to face challenges across its divisions, including memory chips. This has led SK Hynix, a direct rival, to break Samsung’s 33-year consecutive dominance in the DRAM market during Q1 2025. Furthermore, the situation is expected to continue into Q2 2025.
Samsung’s problems in multiple divisions are well known in the tech industry. Even so, the company had managed to maintain its leadership in certain segments, such as memory chips. However, that has just changed, as a rival DRAM supplier has surpassed Samsung after 33 consecutive years of dominance.
Samsung has apologized to its shareholders more than once in recent months for the performance of its most struggling segments. One of the main complaints was the company’s slow growth in the midst of the AI era. Samsung is a supplier of HBM (high-bandwidth memory) chips, which is a key DRAM technology for the development of AI-focused hardware, such as NVIDIA’s AI chips.
Samsung just lost its top spot as global DRAM supplier after 33 years; SK Hynix overtook it
In its latest apology to investors, Samsung executives said the company failed to respond appropriately to the situation and market conditions. Well, other direct rivals, such as SK Hynix, have taken advantage of the company’s difficulties. According to Counterpoint Research’s latest market analysis, SK Hynix took the top spot worldwide as a DRAM supplier in Q1 2025.
This is a major milestone considering that Samsung had maintained a firm dominance in the DRAM market for the past 33 years. The shift in power is also another reflection of the current situation facing the South Korean giant.
According to the report, SK Hynix captured a 36% share of the global market. On the other hand, Samsung secured second place with a 34% share, while Micron got the third spot with a 25% market share.
Demand in the AI segment was especially key for SK Hynix. AI chip suppliers are making large orders for HBM chips. Due to Samsung’s situation, many—including NVIDIA—turned to SK Hynix. In fact, Samsung’s direct rival achieved a 70% market share for HBM memory. Meanwhile, Samsung was left out of NVIDIA’s supply chain for HBM3E chips.
Situation could continue into Q2 2025
Counterpoint Research analysts project a similar market performance for Q2 2025. In other words, Samsung will probably remain the second-place DRAM supplier for at least another quarter.
Samsung is trying to make changes to reverse its current situation. According to reports, the firm has moved up the approval process for production readiness for HBM4 chips by six months. The firm now aims to have it ready by Q1 2025.
