Does China’s rapid chipmaking expansion threaten the global AI memory chip boom?

“South Korea’s memory chip industry is performing very strongly this year and some forecasts suggest conditions could improve further next year,” adviser Kyung Kye-hyun said at a forum hosted by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. “But caution is needed for 2027, particularly 2028.”

Kyung, who led Samsung’s semiconductor business from December 2021 to May 2024, identified the rapid expansion of Chinese chipmakers’ manufacturing capacity as a major challenge for South Korean chipmakers.

“Chinese companies are planning to increase capacity by 300,000 wafers over the next three years, and I’m concerned this could allow them to capture around 12 to 13 per cent market share,” Kyung said on Monday.