Samsung is, by far, the largest memory chip maker in the world. According to DRAMeXchange, the company racked up $14.151 billion in NAND flash memory sales last year, while its closest competitor Toshiba managed to bring in just $7.898 billion in sales. However, Samsung may fall to second place if Toshiba's memory business merges with Western Digital. Now, the South Korean company is expected to invest more in its semiconductor business than it did last year.
According to a report from the US-based research firm IC Insights, Samsung Electronics could invest up to 14.5 trillion won ($12.5 billion) in 2017, which is 11 percent higher than last year's investment. The company is expected to the world's largest chip manufacturing plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. The company is expected to start manufacturing V-NAND flash memory in the new manufacturing unit by mid-2017. SK Hynix, Samsung's local rival is expected to invest 7 trillion won this year.
Samsung plans to reduce the investment in DRAM manufacturing while increasing the investment in 3D NAND memory chips. The company will also make investments in its Icheon plant M14 for the production of 3D NAND memory. Earlier this year, SK Hynix acquired a 51% stake in LG's silicon wafer producing arm LG Siltron for 620 billion won.
Intel, the second largest semiconductor company in the world, is expected to increase the investment to $12 billion this year, an increase of 25% compared to last year. TSMC, the third largest semiconductor brand, is likely to invest $10 billion this year, but that's a 2% drop from last year. Industry insiders are predicting DRAM and NAND flash memory business to continue to rise this year
