Samsung Electronics has opened an advanced packaging research center in Yokohama, bringing development work closer to Japanese suppliers that provide critical materials and equipment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as the company works to narrow its market-share gap with SK Hynix.

Kioxia has ruled out deeper manufacturing ties with SK Hynix while resisting another round of aggressive NAND price increases, leaning instead on longer customer contracts and disciplined capacity expansion as data-center demand keeps memory supply tight.

China's rapid advance in DRAM is intensifying debate in South Korea over whether rigid working-hour rules could make it harder to preserve one of the country's remaining technology advantages over China.