Aiming to capture rising demand, Samsung has announced that it's going to invest $7 billion in a Chinese semiconductor plant to increase flash memory production. Samsung already happens to be the world's largest manufacturer of memory chips and it wants things to stay that way.
The money will be invested over a three-year period and will be poured into Samsung's Xi'an semiconductor plant in China, the company confirmed in a statement today.
NAND flash memory chips are used in a variety of devices such as connected smart objects to smartphones. Samsung is the undisputed leader in this market. It accounted for 41 percent of the global NAND market in the second quarter of this year. That's more than double the 18 percent market share of its closest rival Toshiba.
That's not all. Samsung is also the biggest manufacturer of dynamic random access memory or DRAM as it accounts for 44 percent of the entire market. The company is now making timely investments to enhance capacity. It wants to ensure that rivals don't chip away at its lead.
The increased production capacity for NAND flash memory chips made possible by this $7 billion investment will be used to meet the growing demand for chips destined for smartphones and other consumer electronic devices.
