SK Hynix DRAM market share in 2025 finally wrests leadership from Samsung after nearly three decades. New Korean media reports are claiming that SK Hynix has taken over the industry throne, and with a convincing lead led by its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) initiatives.
Samsung DRAM market share is second to none for many years, the global memory solution customers are able to prefer Samsung as their first choice. But the onset of an AI-driven boom has seen momentum shift in favour of SK Hynix. The most recent data offers up SK Hynix with a much sharper upward turn in DRAM market share, from 32.9 percent to 36.3 percent, as Samsung slumps heavily to 32.7 percent–the largest swing against it that we have seen since 1999
How did SK Hynix Sea of DRAM Market Share Went Up
According to TrendForce, SK Hynix DRAM market share surged because it effectively managed to secure high-profile contracts. SK Hynix had started supplying NVIDIA with its advanced HBM3 and HBM3E solutions for AI chipmakers, over Samsung. In combination, this partnership gave SK Hynix a leg-up over the competition and allowed it to capture an outsized portion of what had become a rapidly-growing DRAM market.
Samsung meanwhile opens its hand after sleeping late to secure HBM deals. The company, which has HBM3E products in development but is not yet able to supply NVIDIA at scale, languishes far behind. In the span of just six months, this gap lead to an 8.8 percentage point loss in Samsung’s share of the DRAM market due to that alone.
SK Hynix’s Push Toward HBM4
One more reason SK Hynix DRAM market share keeps growing is done to the fact it experienced leadership in approaching-generation HBM. It is one of the first to take HBM4 to volume production, years before competitors. Samsung is facing a challenge of catching up with this technological lead.
Today, the DRAM market is not your grandfather’s memory business; this is now a world where those who can serve up bleeding-edge HBM for artificial intelligence, cloud computing(!), and high-performance GPGPUs (or GPUs) rule the day in mid-2015! So, in the near-term perspective when NVIDIA and other AI leaders need faster and more efficient memory, position of SK Hynix is rather safe.
DRAM Share Loss: Can Samsung Recover?
Samsung still wields a heavy hand in memory manufacturing, but that ground it has lost on the competition will likely be challenging to win back.
For the company to have a shot at claiming SK Hynix’s throne, it will need to win some significant HBM deals and become top dog in HBM4. It seems clear that SK Hynix DRAM market share is likely to hold firm for some time ahead so long as NVIDIA and the other AI pioneers continue counting on what it brings to the table.
FAQ
And when it concerns the key NVIDIA contracts for HBM3 and HBM3E, these now belong to SK Hynix that not only takes the lead over Samsung in this department but also leading in terms of development of the new tech for HBM4.
SK Hynix’s DRAM market share edge over Samsung reaches a historic high of 36.3% vs. 32.7% in Q1’25
Samsung dropped by 8.8 percentage points as it lost share stemming from not winning NVIDIA’s HBM contracts, a decline in market share for Samsung technology since 1999.
This means that even if Samsung someday enters NVIDIA’s roadmap with competitive HBM4 products, SK Hynix already occupies the largest part of this charming niche.
