Samsung is reportedly planning to expand its chip business into other key areas of interest. The Investor website quotes industry sources to have hinted that the South Korean tech giant will reportedly make record investments aimed at upgrading and expanding its facilities this year. The source also reports that fellow South Korean semiconductor memory maker SK Hynix is also seeking to expand its business presence with fresh investments.
Both companies are said to have concluded plans to shore up their investments with the cumulative investments credited to be around 30 trillion won (US$26.70 billion) in order to sustain and consolidate on their robust performances this year. Already, Samsung has invested about 12.5 trillion won in its facilities in the first half of the year, a figure which is almost equal to the 13.1 trillion won the company spent in the whole of 2016. There are speculations by industry experts that Samsung’s total investments may be up to 20 trillion won while some even speculate that it could get up to 29 trillion won.
Samsung recently overtook Intel as the world’s largest chipmaker and they are looking to consolidate on that achievement with investment in V-NAND flash and image sensor products while still expanding the chip business. On its part, SK Hynix would reportedly be investing 9.6 trillion won in facilities this year as it looks to expand its DRAM and NAND Flash memory production capabilities. SK Hynix, by latest indices, is the world’s second-largest memory chip maker and the world’s fifth-largest semiconductor company. The new figure allotted to its expansion drive is about 7 trillion won higher than what the company had initially planned to spend this year.
With this latest proposed expansion move, we could see Samsung supplying NAND flash memory and image sensors to more OEMs in the near future. In the face of growing competition, the move is a right one and in the right direction.
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