Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are solidifying their dominance in the global NAND flash market, maintaining a combined market share exceeding 50 percent. SK Hynix notably grew its revenue 1.5 times in a single quarter.
According to market research firm TrendForce on Monday, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix held 28 percent and 22.1 percent of the NAND market respectively by revenue in the fourth quarter of last year. Compared to the previous quarter when they recorded 32.3 percent and 19 percent respectively, the gap between the two companies narrowed while their combined share remained above 50 percent.
Samsung Electronics posted NAND revenue of $6.6 billion in Q4, up 10 percent from the previous quarter. SK Hynix, including subsidiary Solidigm, recorded revenue of $5.21 billion, surging 47.8 percent over the same period. Kioxia, Micron, and SanDisk followed in revenue rankings.
"Samsung's NAND flash average selling price (ASP) increased significantly, but bit shipments declined quarter-over-quarter due to base effects and process transition losses," TrendForce said. "The primary growth driver for the NAND flash market was explosive demand for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) driven by large-scale AI server deployments by North American cloud service providers (CSPs)."
TrendForce added: "Severe hard disk drive (HDD) shortages and extended lead times rapidly shifted orders to NAND, further tightening supply. This imbalance worsened NAND shortages and drove up prices, directly boosting supplier profits."
TrendForce forecast that overall NAND flash prices will surge 85 to 90 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2025. With NAND production capacity expansion limited in the short term and AI demand surging, the firm expects strong price momentum to persist throughout the year.