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[ggx2ac]

More at the link: http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/AC/Samsung-plans-18bn-chip-investment-as-Toshiba-founders

The relevance of this is that Nintendo dual sources eMMC NAND flash memory from both Toshiba and Samsung for the Switch which is suffering from shortages due to lack of component supplies which has been talked about in past threads.

Samsung is investing $17.7B to increase production of their NAND flash memory.

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics will spend around 20.4 trillion won ($17.7 billion) to increase production of flash memory for smartphones and other devices, aiming to cement its market dominance as embattled rival Toshiba struggles to sell its semiconductor operations.

Samsung has completed a new NAND manufacturing plant that produces 64-layer 3D NAND which has done its first shipments this week.

The South Korean conglomerate celebrated its first shipments Tuesday from a semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, on the outskirts of Seoul, that recently began mass production. Declaring the start of the next challenge for the company, Samsung said it plans to invest another 14.4 trillion won in the new factory by 2021.

The new factory will be able to produce the equivalent of 200k 300mm wafers per month.

The plant will be positioned as a cutting-edge hub for NAND flash memory, assuming mass production of 3-D chips with memory cells stacked vertically to increase storage. The factory currently has the capacity to produce the equivalent of around 200,000 300mm wafers per month, but the additional investment will nearly double that figure by 2021. The new spending will bring total investment in the plant to around 30 trillion won for "the largest single fab in the industry," the company said.

They will also be investing money to improve existing plants in parts of China and US.

The company has gone on the offensive in chip investment since spring. The manufacturer laid out plans in May to invest roughly 10 trillion won at a plant in the Chinese city of Xi'an and recently said it would put $1.5 billion into a system chip factory in the U.S. state of Texas.

Prices for lot orders of flash memory products have increased by at least 50% from last year due to demand for higher Smartphone flash storage and demand from data centers for flash storage in servers.

Bulk prices of benchmark flash memory products have risen at least 50% from a year ago. Higher smartphone memory capacity and strong demand from data centers have add to the crunch. Samsung's chip business turned an operating profit of 6.3 trillion won in the January-March quarter, its largest ever on a quarterly basis.

Samsung is still the market leader of NAND flash memory with 35% of market share. They seem to be achieving higher product yields of 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory compared to Toshiba which is 2nd in market share.

Samsung holds the top global share in flash memory with 35%, research firm IHS Technology says. The South Korean company is seen as achieving a higher product yield in mass production of cutting-edge 64-layer 3-D memory than Toshiba, which claims the No. 2 share. The two companies are "about a year apart" in mass production technology, one securities analyst said.

Toshiba is trying to stop an injunction by Western Digital whom is trying to prevent Toshiba's sale of its memory chip unit.

What is the big deal about 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory?

A representative from Western Digital claims that 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory will be cheaper to produce compared to their high end 2D planar NAND chips.

Objective Analysis' comparision of a 16nm 128Gb TLC planar NAND and the 32-layer TLC 384Gb 3D NAND that assumes perfect yield and efficient manufacturing.

 

[Maxinas]

That title confused me. I thought it failed. Good to see.

 

[Vanillalite]

Not surprised. Samsung already makes most everything else in the product chain. Why not bring nand in house.

They already do screens, chips, RAM, and cameras.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Is toshiba actually floundering or is the pending lawsuit preventing them from selling more stock?

 

[tuxfool]

Not surprised. Samsung already makes most everything else in the product chain. Why not bring nand in house.

They already do screens, chips, RAM, and cameras.

Samsung already produces NAND. This isn't adding a new market to them, just expanding their existing one.

Samsung is still the market leader of NAND flash memory with 35% of market share. They seem to be achieving higher product yields of 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory compared to Toshiba which is 2nd in market share.

 

[ggx2ac]

Not surprised. Samsung already makes most everything else in the product chain. Why not bring nand in house.

They already do screens, chips, RAM, and cameras.

I'm a little confused by what you're saying.

They already have a few plants that produce NAND flash memory. The article here talks about how they will be investing to improve existing plants and the new factory they completed is for producing the latest generation of NAND flash memory.

This is also to highlight that maybe things will improve with regards to NAND chip supplies from Samsung considering the shortages that have occurred for NAND chips due to a surge in demand from Smartphone makers and Data Centers.

 

[ggx2ac]

Is toshiba actually floundering or is the pending lawsuit preventing them from selling more stock?

Western Digital preventing Toshiba from selling its memory chip unit is causing Toshiba to lag behind in R&D which is why it's mentioned in the article that Samsung is already moving onto 96-layer 3D NAND. Toshiba lagging behind Samsung means it could lose market share to Samsung.

Also, if the chip sale isn't finalised so that Toshiba can pay off its billion dollars of losses by March 2018 iirc, Toshiba is at risk of being delisted from the stock exchange. (I may be missing a detail there.)

 

[Dynasty]

Basically the Switch was so succesful it caused a shortage on NAND flash memory, forcing Samsung to invest ~$18billion into the system so it can up it's production to match how insanely well the Switch is doing.

Spoiler

Nintendo is love, Switch is Life.

On a more serious note, the whole tech industry is suffering from supply problem. RAM shortage will continue for the rest of the year leading to higher prices. Nice to see Samsunf inevesting money, hopefully Toshiba can sell of there bussiness quickly.

 

[Shin]

Is toshiba actually floundering or is the pending lawsuit preventing them from selling more stock?

The company as a whole is having difficulties, hence trying to sell off their semi conductor business.
WD filed a lawsuit against them, but Toshiba is fighting that back so you could say WD is blocking that sale.
Ugly business that's going back and forth between WD/Toshiba (from what I gathered WD is in the wrong here and stalling for their own gain, really nasty).