Samsung Overtakes Micron to Claim First-Ever No. 1 Spot in Auto Memory

Samsung Electronics Takes Top Spot in Automotive Memory

Market Share Reaches 40% Last Year

Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Micron Technology Inc. for the first time to become the world’s largest supplier in the automotive memory semiconductor market.

Samsung’s share of the automotive memory market rose to 40% last year from 35% a year earlier, according to an S&P Global Mobility report released on May 31. That put the South Korean company in first place. Micron, the previous leader, saw its share fall to 36% from 40% over the same period, dropping to second.

The shift was driven by Samsung’s sharp expansion in China, a fast-growing market, beyond traditional auto markets in Europe, South Korea and Japan. It also came as demand surged for high-capacity, high-performance memory used in autonomous driving systems and increasingly sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment systems. Samsung’s advanced products, including low-power DRAM and Universal Flash Storage, gained traction with global customers.

Automotive memory had long been viewed as a relatively low-value segment in the memory industry because replacement cycles stretch seven to eight years and demand for cutting-edge technology had been limited. Carmakers also prioritized durability and stability over performance while maintaining conservative supply-chain management, creating high barriers to entry for new suppliers.

Samsung began a full-scale push into the market in 2015 with low-power memory solutions such as LPDDR and UFS, targeting high-performance infotainment systems and autonomous driving vehicles. It later moved early to apply automotive solid-state drives and graphics DRAM to mass-produced vehicles, accelerating its push into the global premium market centered on self-driving technology. The company recorded average annual revenue growth of more than 40% in the automotive memory market from 2020 through 2025, the report said.

Samsung plans to reinforce its lead with a broader product lineup that includes high-performance DRAM such as LPDDR5X and LPDDR5, as well as SSDs that meet the AEC-Q100 automotive quality standard.

Kim Chae-yeon, Hankyung.com reporter, why29@hankyung.com