The Samsung Safe event was held. The first keynote came from Moonsoo Kang, EVP of the Wafer Business Development team. the second presentation was led by Hyeokman Kwon, head of the System LSI business product team, and Jim Elliot, memory sales. In my opinion, Samsung’s most memorable (pun intended) presentation of the year came from the memory group.
“One trillion GB is the total amount of memory Samsung has manufactured since its founding more than 40 years ago, but the fact that Samsung has produced a version of that in the last three years alone shows how fast the digital transformation is progressing,” said Jung-bae Lee, president and head of Samsung Electronics’ memory business. “As advances in memory bandwidth, capacity and power efficiency make new platforms possible, and these in turn spur more semiconductor innovation, we will increasingly drive higher levels of integration as digital co-evolves.”
Jim Elliot has been in the memory business for 25 years, 20 of them at Samsung. Jim is very involved and offers a bright future for the memory business.
Jim highlighted the industry drivers for PCs, cell phones, and the data-driven (availability and reliability) era we live in today. It is reported that 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years and this high growth will continue.
For growth trends, Jim mentioned the meta-universe, automobiles, and artificial intelligence robots. I think AI will be a potential growth driver for most semiconductor segments for both memory and logic, and will require a lot of advanced memory and logic. What needs to be clear is that AI will touch a large number of chips that will never have enough logic or memory performance and density.
A $700 billion question is: “Will memory technology be able to keep up with the data explosion?” The answer, of course, is yes, and Jim explains why.
According to Jim, memory node conversion has pushed from 90nm to 10nm. to address the upcoming challenges, Jim spoke in more detail about Samsung memory.
Samsung launched its fifth generation of 10nm-class DRAM as well as its eighth and ninth generation of vertical NAND (V-NAND). Today, Samsung has 567 DRAM orders and 617 NAND orders. Let’s face it, Samsung is the #1 semiconductor company for a reason, and memory is the driving force behind Samsung’s semiconductor dynasty, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Jim’s presentation covered partnerships, alternative business models, and the upcoming open innovation Samsung Memory Research Center. He also presented the roadmap for DRAM and NAND.
Jim summarized the application notes on mobile, server, cloud, and automotive development (servers on wheels). Samsung currently has 400 automotive projects underway and is in volume production with over 60 automotive customers.
Samsung profits fall for first time in three years as global chip demand slows
Samsung Electronics announced its first profit decline in nearly three years, a sign that the industry recession is deepening as demand for electronic devices fades.
The world’s largest memory chipmaker and smartphone maker estimated Friday that operating profit for the three months ended in September was 10.8 billion won ($7.7 billion), down 32 percent from a year earlier.
That was well below Bloomberg’s estimate of Won12.1tn, which marked the first profit decline since 2020. Sales were Won76tn, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
The profit guidance came below expectations after U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology and Japan’s Armored Man Holdings cut spending to deal with a supply glut. U.S. chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday lowered its third-quarter revenue forecast by about $1.1 billion from its August estimate.
“Demand for smartphones, PCs and TVs is declining at a very fast pace due to macroeconomic headwinds. Chip orders are being cut even faster due to high inventories,” said Choi Do-yeon, an analyst at Shinhan Securities.
But earlier this week, a Samsung executive told reporters in the U.S. that the company is not considering production cuts yet.
Kyung Kye-hyun, head of the company’s semiconductor business, expects the memory market to remain sluggish until the end of next year. He recently told employees at an internal event that Samsung cut its chip sales forecast for the second half of the year by 32 percent from its April forecast, according to the Korea Economic Daily.
So far this year, the pessimistic outlook has pushed Samsung shares down about 30 percent. But Morgan Stanley upgraded the semiconductor sector this week, pushing up shares of Samsung and SK Hynix on expectations that the market will rebound in the second half of next year.
“The semiconductor industry is unnerved by the sudden inventory adjustment by customers amid growing concerns about the economic outlook,” said Park Yuak, an analyst at Kiwoom SecuriTIes. “Although inventory adjustments are likely to end in the first quarter of next year, chip prices in the second half of the year will be much lower than expected.”
Geopolitical risk is another area of concern for chipmakers. Washington is expected to announce new restrictions on Chinese memory chip makers on Friday in an effort to curb Beijing’s technological advances.
However, analysts say the move could affect the South Korean company’s business in China.
Samsung owns a Nand flash memory chip plant in Xi’an, while SK Hynix has a Dram chip plant in Wuxi and a Nand plant in Dalian that it bought from Intel two years ago.
The Korean company recently announced a series of deals to build new factories in the U.S. as part of President Joe Biden’s Chip and Science Act.
Editor: Fei Huang
