Is Samsung back ahead of SK Hynix?

Why is Samsung suddenly beating SK Hynix again?

Samsung has taken back the lead in global DRAM revenue from SK Hynix, reversing one of the biggest surprises in the memory chip industry. But SK Hynix still sells more high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the expensive chips used in Nvidia's AI accelerators.

The reversal is striking. According to Counterpoint Research, SK Hynix controlled 39% of global DRAM revenue in Q2 2025, compared with Samsung's 33%. One year later, Samsung held 38% and SK Hynix had fallen to 25%. That is a 19-percentage-point swing in their relative positions.

Two things changed. Conventional DRAM prices surged, rewarding Samsung's enormous production capacity, while Samsung also recovered ground in HBM after falling behind SK Hynix during the first wave of the AI boom.

Samsung now leads the broader DRAM market again. Whether it has regained leadership in the chips that power AI is a different question, and the answer is much less favorable to Samsung.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest semiconductor industry report.

What does Samsung need to beat SK Hynix in AI memory?

Samsung already leads SK Hynix in overall DRAM revenue, but taking the AI memory crown would mean overtaking SK Hynix in HBM sales and winning a larger share of future Nvidia accelerator orders.

DRAM covers several types of memory used in servers, PCs, smartphones and AI systems. HBM is a specialized category within DRAM, designed to deliver the extremely high memory bandwidth needed by advanced AI chips. NAND flash, meanwhile, is the memory technology used for storage in SSDs and other devices.

The rankings currently tell two different stories. Samsung holds 38% of the DRAM market against SK Hynix's 25%, according to Counterpoint. In HBM, however, SK Hynix controls 50%, while Samsung has 33%.

Samsung can regain its position as the largest DRAM manufacturer while SK Hynix remains the more important supplier for certain leading AI accelerators.

For this comparison, we should concentrate on actual memory sales, HBM production and major customer orders. Samsung Electronics' smartphone, display and other businesses would only distort the picture.

Has Samsung really taken back the DRAM market from SK Hynix?

Samsung has firmly regained the DRAM revenue lead, and the gap with SK Hynix has widened for three consecutive quarters.

Counterpoint's quarterly data shows Samsung falling behind SK Hynix in early 2025, reaching a six-point deficit in Q2. Both companies were tied at 33% in Q3, before Samsung moved ahead in Q4.

By Q2 2026, Samsung had opened a 13-point lead. SK Hynix's share declined by 14 points over the year, even though its DRAM revenue continued growing rapidly.

TrendForce independently confirmed the ranking in September 2026. Its estimates put Samsung at 39.4% of the market, SK Hynix at 24.9% and Micron at 23.3%. Samsung's quarterly DRAM revenue rose 63.4%, compared with 37.9% for SK Hynix.

SK Hynix was still growing strongly, yet Samsung was growing much faster. This is a genuine shift in who captures the industry's revenue, helped by Samsung's ability to sell large volumes of conventional DRAM at sharply higher prices.

Quarter	Samsung DRAM share	SK Hynix DRAM share	Samsung's lead
Q2 2025	33%	39%	-6 pp
Q3 2025	33%	33%	0 pp
Q4 2025	36%	32%	+4 pp
Q1 2026	38%	29%	+9 pp
Q2 2026	38%	25%	+13 pp
One-year change	+5 pp	-14 pp	+19 pp

Source: Counterpoint Research, Global DRAM Market Share by Revenue, published September 2026. Figures rounded.

Is SK Hynix still ahead of Samsung in HBM memory?

SK Hynix remains the world's largest HBM supplier, but Samsung is catching up much faster than the previous market rankings suggested.

Counterpoint's latest quarterly data gives SK Hynix 50% of global HBM revenue, Samsung 33% and Micron 18%. A year earlier, SK Hynix controlled 64%, Samsung just 15% and Micron 21%.

Samsung has therefore more than doubled its market share, while SK Hynix has surrendered 14 percentage points. The gap between the two Korean manufacturers has fallen from 49 points to 17.

The acceleration was especially sharp in Q2 2026. Samsung jumped from 21% to 33% in one quarter, while SK Hynix fell from 58% to 50%.

Yet SK Hynix still generates approximately 1.5 times Samsung's HBM revenue. That is a substantial advantage, particularly in a market where production capacity and customer relationships take years to establish.

Momentum favors Samsung. The current ranking still favors SK Hynix.

Is Samsung's HBM comeback happening faster than expected?

Samsung's HBM recovery is accelerating, although most of its market-share gains are concentrated in two quarters rather than spread evenly across the year.

Looking at Counterpoint's five-quarter series, Samsung first jumped from 15% to 23% in Q3 2025. Its share then slipped slightly and stayed around 21–22% for two quarters. The next major increase came in Q2 2026, when Samsung reached 33%.

We can measure the recovery another way. Among the combined HBM revenue of Samsung and SK Hynix, Samsung's share rose from approximately 19% in Q2 2025 to 40% a year later.

Samsung went from generating roughly $19 for every $100 earned jointly by the two manufacturers to generating about $40. That's a remarkable change in twelve months.

Still, the latest HBM figures mainly reflect HBM3E, according to Counterpoint. The commercial impact of HBM4 will become clearer in subsequent quarters.

Quarter	Samsung HBM share	SK Hynix HBM share	Micron HBM share
Q2 2025	15%	64%	21%
Q3 2025	23%	56%	21%
Q4 2025	22%	57%	21%
Q1 2026	21%	58%	21%
Q2 2026	33%	50%	18%
One-year change	+18 pp	-14 pp	-3 pp

Source: Counterpoint Research, Global HBM Market Share by Revenue. Totals may differ slightly from 100% because of rounding.

Has Samsung finally caught up with SK Hynix in HBM4 technology?

Samsung has closed much of its HBM technology gap with SK Hynix, and its early commercial HBM4 shipments are strong evidence of that recovery. We still lack independent results showing which manufacturer delivers better performance at scale.

In February 2026, Samsung announced that it had begun mass production and commercial shipments of HBM4, becoming the first manufacturer to publicly announce commercial shipments of the new generation.

Samsung's HBM4 combines sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class DRAM, known as 1c, with a 4-nanometer logic base die. The company announced a standard transfer speed of 11.7 Gbps per pin, with potential operation up to 13 Gbps.

Those specifications represented a meaningful step forward after Samsung's difficulties with earlier HBM generations. By June 2026, the company had already begun shipping 12-layer HBM4E samples to major customers, announcing speeds of up to 16 Gbps per pin.

SK Hynix has advanced its own HBM4 products. In July, the manufacturer stated that its chips had achieved customer-required operating speeds and emphasized their power efficiency and manufacturing costs. It had also completed HBM4E sample shipments during the first half of the year.

The unresolved comparison concerns how much usable output each company can produce, how the chips perform inside actual accelerator systems and how much customers pay per finished stack. Vendor specifications alone cannot settle those questions.

Samsung is back in the technological race. SK Hynix's larger commercial footprint suggests it remains ahead in proven large-scale deployment.

Has Samsung taken Nvidia's HBM orders away from SK Hynix?

SK Hynix still appears to control most of Nvidia's HBM4 orders for the Vera Rubin AI platform, despite Samsung's technological improvements.

In January 2026, Yonhap reported that SK Hynix had secured approximately 70% of Nvidia's HBM4 requirements for Vera Rubin, citing industry sources. That was substantially higher than earlier expectations of roughly 50%.

The reported allocation is especially important because Nvidia is one of the most demanding buyers of advanced HBM. Securing a large share of its orders requires passing technical qualification while demonstrating reliable manufacturing and delivery capacity.

Samsung's commercial HBM4 shipments show that it has reached a more competitive position. However, its announcement did not include a complete customer-by-customer shipment breakdown.

We should also distinguish a reported allocation from completed deliveries. The 70% figure is based on industry sources, and actual shipment shares can change as Nvidia adjusts its purchases.

For now, the evidence still points toward SK Hynix as Nvidia's principal HBM supplier. Samsung has made the race closer, but there is little evidence that it has displaced its rival at Nvidia.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest semiconductor industry report.

Is Samsung beating SK Hynix because regular DRAM prices are rising?

Samsung's current DRAM lead owes a great deal to soaring conventional memory prices, which have rewarded its huge manufacturing footprint.

TrendForce reported that global DRAM revenue jumped 59.5% quarter over quarter in Q2 2026, reaching approximately $154.7 billion. Demand from AI servers remained strong, while memory inventories were historically low.

The shortage pushed prices sharply higher across conventional DRAM products. Samsung benefited because it sells enormous volumes of the memory used by server CPUs, smartphones and other computing devices.

SK Hynix had allocated a larger proportion of its shipments to HBM. According to TrendForce, that product mix limited the increase in its average selling prices compared with Samsung and Micron.

There is a strange irony here: SK Hynix's greater focus on AI memory, previously one of its biggest advantages, reduced its exposure to some of the industry's strongest conventional DRAM price increases.

TrendForce also estimated that conventional DRAM contract-price growth would slow to 13–18% in Q3 2026. If that moderation continues, Samsung's overall growth advantage could become harder to maintain.

For now, Samsung is making better use of the broad memory shortage, while SK Hynix remains more concentrated in HBM.

Is SK Hynix actually losing money by falling behind Samsung?

SK Hynix is making more money than ever, despite losing DRAM market share to Samsung. Its latest financial results make that clear.

In July 2026, SK Hynix reported Q2 revenue of KRW 79.32 trillion and operating profit of KRW 60.54 trillion. Revenue increased 257% year over year, while operating profit rose 557%.

Its operating margin reached 76%, an extraordinary level for a memory manufacturer.

Samsung's semiconductor division was even larger in absolute terms. Its Device Solutions business reported KRW 127.5 trillion in revenue and KRW 89.2 trillion in operating profit for the same quarter.

That gives Samsung approximately 61% more semiconductor revenue and 47% more operating profit than SK Hynix. However, Samsung's division includes foundry and system semiconductor businesses, so we cannot treat the figures as a perfectly matched memory-only comparison.

SK Hynix's 76% operating margin also exceeded the approximately 70% margin recorded by Samsung's Device Solutions division.

So SK Hynix is losing market share in an industry where its own profits are breaking records. It sounds contradictory, but with memory prices rising this quickly, both can happen.

Are Samsung's latest financial results stronger than SK Hynix's?

Samsung's financial recovery is now visible in company-wide earnings, with its latest preliminary results showing another sharp increase in revenue and operating profit.

In October 2026, Samsung issued guidance for approximately KRW 195 trillion in Q3 consolidated revenue and KRW 107.4 trillion in operating profit.

Compared with Q2, those figures represent growth of approximately 14% in revenue and 20% in operating profit. According to Samsung, the estimated operating profit was almost nine times the figure reported a year earlier.

The company has therefore continued growing after its record Q2, rather than experiencing a one-quarter earnings spike.

However, Samsung's preliminary guidance covers the whole company, including smartphones and other businesses. It does not provide the detailed memory profitability breakdown needed to compare directly with SK Hynix.

SK Hynix's latest fully reported quarter remains exceptionally strong, with its 76% operating margin reflecting high selling prices and its concentration on valuable memory products.

Samsung is ahead on absolute semiconductor earnings in the last fully reported quarter. SK Hynix has the higher reported margin on these differently scoped businesses. A clean memory-only profitability winner cannot yet be established from public segment disclosures.

Does Samsung also lead SK Hynix in NAND flash memory?

Samsung remains the biggest NAND flash supplier, but SK Hynix has become a serious challenger in the fast-growing enterprise SSD market.

Counterpoint's Q2 2026 research put Samsung's NAND shipment share at 25%, compared with 22% for SK Hynix, including Solidigm. That is a much smaller difference than Samsung's advantage in the broader DRAM market.

The direction of the NAND industry is particularly interesting. Enterprise SSDs accounted for 48% of global NAND bit shipments, up from 26% one year earlier.

These are the high-capacity storage drives used by data centers. Demand has grown as AI systems increasingly need to store and retrieve enormous amounts of data, particularly for inference.

SK Hynix benefited from Solidigm, whose NAND bit shipments grew 40% quarter over quarter, according to Counterpoint. Samsung, meanwhile, had reduced its overall NAND shipment share from 32% in Q2 2024 as it prioritized more profitable DRAM production.

Samsung still ships more NAND, but the gap with SK Hynix is fairly narrow. Enterprise SSD demand could make this competition much closer over the next few quarters.

Can Samsung produce enough HBM4 to overtake SK Hynix?

Samsung has the manufacturing scale to challenge SK Hynix, but the number of finished HBM4 stacks it can deliver to customers remains the more important test.

HBM production is complicated. Manufacturers must stack multiple memory dies, connect them using tiny vertical electrical pathways and package them with the components needed by advanced AI processors.

A company can manufacture enormous quantities of conventional DRAM and still face bottlenecks in HBM packaging, testing or yields.

Samsung has made progress. TrendForce reported in September 2026 that Samsung achieved the strongest quarterly DRAM bit-shipment growth among the three largest suppliers, partly supported by its early HBM4 production and shipments.

SK Hynix has continued investing in additional production capacity while relying on established customer relationships. In its July earnings announcement, the company also highlighted long-term supply arrangements with around ten major customers.

We still lack comparable public figures showing Samsung's and SK Hynix's actual HBM4 manufacturing yields, finished-stack output and packaging throughput.

Samsung has demonstrated that it can increase HBM supply quickly. But producing more memory in general and delivering more qualified HBM4 stacks are two very different achievements. SK Hynix remains the company to beat on the latter.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest semiconductor industry report.

Could Nvidia's next HBM chips give Samsung another chance to win?

Nvidia's push toward customized HBM could give Samsung another opening against SK Hynix, especially if the next generation changes how memory suppliers design their chips.

Recent industry reporting has pointed to a more standardized approach to certain custom HBM base dies, potentially involving TSMC's advanced manufacturing processes.

An October 2026 report by Seoul Economic Daily indicated that Nvidia was pushing Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron toward TSMC's 3-nanometer technology for a future custom HBM design.

If adopted, such an approach could change how much each supplier benefits from manufacturing its own logic base die. Samsung currently combines advanced memory production with its own semiconductor foundry capabilities, while SK Hynix works closely with external manufacturing and packaging partners.

However, a shared base-die process would not automatically make the finished memory stacks equivalent. Manufacturers would still compete on DRAM performance, stacking, power consumption, manufacturing yields and pricing.

This next transition could give Samsung another opportunity to win Nvidia business. It could also favor SK Hynix if its established production processes and customer relationships continue delivering better results.

The interesting part is that a new generation of custom HBM could reset some of the competitive advantages that exist today. Which company benefits most remains an open question.

Is Micron catching SK Hynix while Samsung pulls ahead?

Micron has nearly caught SK Hynix in overall DRAM revenue, creating another problem for the Korean manufacturer even as it remains the HBM leader.

TrendForce's Q2 2026 rankings put SK Hynix at 24.9% of global DRAM revenue and Micron at 23.3%, leaving a gap of just 1.6 percentage points.

Micron's revenue grew 65.5% quarter over quarter, substantially faster than SK Hynix's 37.9%. Its strategy of prioritizing higher-priced server DRAM helped it benefit from the same pricing trends that strengthened Samsung.

The HBM rankings tell a different story. Micron held 18% of worldwide HBM revenue, compared with Samsung's 33% and SK Hynix's 50%.

SK Hynix therefore faces two separate pressures. Samsung is catching up in HBM while extending its overall DRAM lead, and Micron is getting remarkably close to SK Hynix in total DRAM revenue.

Micron's progress also challenges the idea that the memory industry is simply a two-company rivalry. Even if Samsung does not overtake SK Hynix in HBM immediately, SK Hynix could face tougher competition across several product categories at once.

Can Samsung stay ahead of SK Hynix after memory prices cool down?

Samsung's DRAM lead looks solid today, but a more normal pricing environment will test how much of its recovery comes from stronger products rather than unusually high conventional memory prices.

Three developments support Samsung's position. It has led DRAM revenue for three consecutive quarters, increased its HBM market share sharply and begun commercial HBM4 shipments.

These developments have occurred alongside one of the strongest memory pricing periods in years. TrendForce's reported 59.5% quarterly increase in DRAM revenue shows how unusual the current conditions are.

A slowdown in conventional DRAM price increases could reduce Samsung's growth advantage, particularly if HBM becomes a larger proportion of the industry's revenue again.

SK Hynix also has some protection through long-term customer relationships and its established place in advanced AI memory supply chains.

Samsung's biggest test is whether its HBM gains continue once the first wave of HBM4 deliveries is complete. The next several quarters should reveal whether the latest market-share jump represents lasting progress or a particularly strong product transition.

Samsung has already proved it can regain the overall DRAM lead. Keeping that lead when conventional memory prices stop doing so much of the work would be far more convincing.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest semiconductor industry report.

What would prove Samsung has completely overtaken SK Hynix?

Samsung would need to become the largest HBM supplier while keeping its lead in overall DRAM revenue. The next measurable milestone is moving beyond SK Hynix's current 50% HBM share.

Samsung currently holds 33% of the market, leaving a 17-point gap. Its recent gains show that such a reversal is possible, although extending them will become harder as its market share grows.

Nvidia orders would provide another clear measure. SK Hynix reportedly secured approximately 70% of the HBM4 supply required for Vera Rubin in 2026. If Samsung begins winning a larger share of subsequent Nvidia platforms, that would strengthen the argument that its technological recovery has become a commercial advantage.

We would also want to see the gains last across more than one product generation. Samsung's HBM4 launch was impressive, but sustained leadership through HBM4E and custom HBM would provide stronger evidence of manufacturing competitiveness.

The financial test is straightforward too: higher HBM revenue should produce strong profits without forcing Samsung to compete mainly through lower prices.

As seen above, Samsung has already reversed its DRAM ranking and narrowed the HBM gap considerably. The remaining challenge is to turn its improved technology and growing output into lasting customer leadership.

So, is Samsung back ahead of SK Hynix?

Yes, Samsung is back ahead of SK Hynix in overall DRAM revenue, but SK Hynix remains the leader in HBM, the memory technology most closely associated with advanced AI accelerators.

Samsung's comeback is substantial. It has reclaimed the DRAM revenue crown, opened a double-digit market-share lead and more than doubled its HBM share over one year. Its latest financial guidance also shows that the company's recovery is continuing.

SK Hynix, however, still controls approximately half of global HBM revenue and appears to retain the largest allocation of Nvidia's Vera Rubin HBM4 orders. Its record profitability shows that losing overall DRAM share has done little to weaken its immediate financial position.

The biggest change is the speed at which Samsung has closed the gap. What looked like a comfortable SK Hynix advantage in AI memory a year ago has become a much closer contest, with Samsung gaining market share and shipping competitive next-generation chips.

Our judgment is that Samsung has already won back overall DRAM leadership and is making a serious challenge for the HBM crown. SK Hynix is still ahead where the most advanced AI memory is concerned, but its lead is no longer nearly as comfortable.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest semiconductor industry report.