DRAM Market Share, etc.

I found three useful points from the article linked below:

  • According to IC Insights, the top three manufacturers account for 95% of total DRAM production. Market share is Samsung at 44%, Hynix at 28% and Micron at 23%.

  • Micron leads the field in DRAM process technology at the most advanced node. They are ahead of Samsung in deploying the 1-alpha node by about 1 year, and ahead of Hynix by 6-9 months. But a key point here is that Micron does not have the most advanced total manufacturing footprint, as seen by their cost per bit and public commentary on mix of production nodes. Samsung and Hynix, while they are behind Micron at the most advanced node, they both lead Micron by having more production on more advanced processes, leading to lower overall cost per bit.

  • Samsung’s scale advantage is quantified but he difference in operating profit margins in the last five quarters. The average process node cost advantage described above is part of this. But Samsung has nearly twice as much production over which to spread their large R&D and SG&A costs than does Micron (and Hynix). This results in Samsung having an operating margin that is 710 bps higher than Micron in the most recent quarter, 42.1% to 35.0%.

Link to article: https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20220531PD202/micron-samsung…

-S. Hughes (long MU)

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