DRAM industry revenue falls, and Samsung loses leadership to SK hynix

Global dynamic random access memory (DRAM) revenue was $27.01 billion in the first quarter of 2025, down 5.5% year-on-year. The decline was driven by falling contract prices for conventional DRAM and reduced supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), according to a TrendForce report.

One factor in the revenue decline was Samsung's redesign of its HBM3e memory, which simplified production. This forced competitors to sell off accumulated inventory and maintain price cuts that have been ongoing since the fourth quarter of 2024.

At the same time, TrendForce expects a significant increase in the pace of purchases in the second quarter of 2025, as PC and smartphone OEMs complete inventory adjustments and ramp up device production ahead of the end of the 90-day pause in reciprocal US tariffs. At the same time, contract prices for both regular DRAM and combined with HBM are also expected to recover.

As for the market leaders, South Korea's SK hynix took the lead with $9.72 billion in revenue, although the results fell by 7.1% compared to last year. Samsung, which in 2024 became the world's largest chip manufacturer, lost its position with an even bigger drop in revenue - 19%, in particular due to the inability to supply HBM products to China. The company's revenue amounted to $9.1 billion.

Third place is taken by Micron, which, unlike previous companies, saw a 2.7% increase and record revenue of $6.58 billion.

TrendForce also notes that while the three leaders are moving to advanced technology nodes, gaps in the market are being filled by Taiwanese companies using mature process technologies. In particular, quarterly revenue increased at Nanya, which began shipping select DDR5 products, which countered weak consumer demand for DRAM. The company received $219 million in revenue, up 7.5% from the previous quarter.

The second Taiwanese company to see growth is Winbond, which, despite falling prices, saw a 22.7% increase in revenue to $146 million. The company attributes these results to a significant increase in the supply of high-density products and a lower price per GB of LPDDR4 and DDR4 RAM.