Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are stepping up equipment spending at their NAND flash plants in China through 2027, upgrading existing production lines even as future access to Western chipmaking tools becomes less predictable.
Global artificial intelligence infrastructure buildouts and rising capex by cloud service providers pushed Taiwan's July export orders for information and communications technology (ICT) products, led by AI servers, up nearly 90% year-over-year, while export orders for foundry and memory also rose by more than 70%. However, companies in advanced economies are encountering power shortages as they invest in AI infrastructure, exposing a bottleneck that highlights the need to develop AI computing and net-zero technologies in tandem.
Nvidia's AI memory orders helped drive a sharp split between SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics in the first half of 2026. According to Chosun Biz, Nvidia became SK Hynix's biggest customer in the first half of 2026, while it did not rank among Samsung's top five revenue sources.
Samsung Electronics' DRAM wafer capacity will grow only marginally through 2027, with investment directed at node migration and line conversions rather than aggressive wafer-capacity expansion, according to Omdia data obtained by Chosun Biz.
