Samsung Electronics will make a $12.5 billion investment in semiconductors over the course of 2017, market research firm IC Insights predicted. Therefore, the Seoul-based tech giant is expected to be the largest investor in the semiconductor industry this year as the company will increase its related investments by 11 percent in comparison to 2016. A significant portion of the investment is expected to go into Samsung’s new chipmaking facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Once opened, the facility is said to be the world’s largest chipset manufacturing operation and will reportedly start mass-producing V-NAND flash memory chips in mid-2017. While Samsung is increasing the volume of resources it’s committing to 3D NAND manufacturing operations, the company is simultaneously planning to scale down its investments in DRAM operations, the market research firm states. A summary of IC Insights’ latest report can be seen below.
The fact that the South Korean tech giant is looking to make a number of additional major investments in its chipset manufacturing operation isn’t surprising seeing how this unit was responsible for the majority of the company’s profits in recent quarters. Samsung’s Q4 2016 financials revealed some impressive figures that were primarily fueled by its chipmaking division. While the conglomerate’s mobile unit traditionally contributed more to its profits than it recently did, the semiconductor division became an even more prominent earner within the company following the Galaxy Note 7 debacle that cost Samsung billions of dollars. Due to that state of affairs and the fact that Samsung’s global semiconductor market share has recently been increasing, it isn’t surprising that the South Korean tech giant is now looking to invest more money into its flagship operation.
Samsung isn’t the only major player in the industry looking to commit significant resources to expanding its chipmaking operations, as IC Insights believes both SK Hynix and Intel will also make massive investments over the course of this year. According to the latest prediction, Intel will invest $12 billion into its operations in 2017, while SK Hynix will commit more than $6 billion to expanding its semiconductor business. It remains to be seen how the aforementioned figures are going to be invested, but it seems that the semiconductor market is about to become even more competitive in the coming months.