Samsung is pouring $8 billion towards new NAND factory in China

nanoguy

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Forward-looking: Samsung has decided to bolster its Chinese NAND production by committing an additional $8 billion on top of earlier investments. This comes in spite of increased pressure from competing local companies that are able to undercut its products. With a predicted increase in demand for 5G phones, Samsung is anticipating this while trying to keep memory prices low and make it harder for others to steal market share.

Samsung lost the title of world's largest chip maker to Intel this year, but that doesn't mean it isn't fighting to take it back as soon as possible. According to a Chinese media report spotted by Reuters, the company is pumping an $8 billion investment into its chip factory in the region.

The move is supposed to help boost production of NAND flash memory and flood the market just in time for the predicted increase in demand for 2020. A big chunk of that demand will be due to an increase in the availability of 5G smartphones. According to market researchers, Samsung currently owns three quarters of that emerging market and is looking to strengthen that position in the coming years.

Interestingly, Samsung is making a bet in the memory space despite falling profits of 56 percent year-over year. Most of that loss is attributed to weak demand for its chips, which has been quite beneficial for consumers, as memory prices have been on a rapid decline.

The $8 billion investment to boost production might not make sense in that context, but the predicted surge in demand has already slowed down the decline in prices. By increasing the supply of memory chips, Samsung is looking to avoid supply issues, which could send prices back up and open the window for its rivals like Micron and SK Hynix to secure larger contracts and claw away market share.

The move will also appease the Chinese government, which has been involved in a trade war with the US. Samsung has already poured an estimated $18 billion in its Xi'an facility, which was previously used mainly for testing and packaging of NAND products.

At the same time, Samsung has been closing some of its other Chinese factories to shift smartphone production to India and Vietnam. The company is selling off its HDI printed circuit board manufacturing facility in Jiangsu, and earlier this year it closed its phone assembly facility in Huizhou, which is now effectively a ghost town.

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"Samsung is making a bet in the memory space despite falling profits of 56 percent year-over year. Most of that loss is attributed to weak demand for its chips, which has been quite beneficial for consumers, as memory prices have been on a rapid decline."
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A Samsung 500GB 860 Pro is still $150 at Newegg and the price has not moved in over a year

No wonder there is a weak demand for their chips

A 500GB Samsung MLC drive should "at least" be price comparable to a TLC drive of twice it's size

1TB TLC drives are now under $90 in many cases

Western Digital 1TB TLC = $87 @ Newegg today
 
Gee...less regulation, no labor "strikes/union/healthcare" issues. Billions of "workers"
that must bend to the will of the communist government.
But wouldn't "reverse tariffs" (tax breaks), alleviate those issues"?

(That was really stupid, I don't believe I said that. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me).
 
Because even with tariffs it's still cheaper to make products with Chinese child slave labor
I suppose the next thing you're going to try and tell me, is that Chinese kids don't have a governmentally enforced $15.00 an hour minimum wage... :eek: :rolleyes: What kind of sh!t is that? They should unionize.
 
I'm picturing an 8 year old union leader...wearing Nike's... Which he made.
sorry, he or she made.
 
I suppose the next thing you're going to try and tell me, is that Chinese kids don't have a governmentally enforced $15.00 an hour minimum wage... :eek: :rolleyes: What kind of sh!t is that? They should unionize.
They should offer them a pension, they'll never live to use it
 
Anyone else think we should be very leery about SSDs made directly in China? Aside from the Samsung EULA which states '...data may be sent internationally. .."

"That's not a virus! That's an automatic save to the cloud. You're welcome."
 
Anyone else think we should be very leery about SSDs made directly in China? Aside from the Samsung EULA which states '...data may be sent internationally. .."

"That's not a virus! That's an automatic save to the cloud. You're welcome."
Considering that China just rejected investment fr American tech companies, among other things, no. China just banned American software companies and hardware for suspicion of American spying. I see that as kind of an admission of guilt from China. If they're that afraid that we will do it to them then I'd consider it a reasonable assumption they have already been doing it to us.

I wish a world economy is something that could benefit us all on a capitalist level, but that just isn't true with countries like China. With the way the CCP works, China could manipulate production in Samsung factories to implement changes in architecture without Samsung knowing, possibly flooding the SSD market with Chinese storage devices.

While I don't like conspiracy theories, any country that uses dormitories filled with Chinese child slave labor surrounded by suicide nets is more than likely to be doing things like this. The leaks from the Hong Kong protests more than back this theory up.
 
I'm shocked that they're building a fab making state-of-the-art semiconductors in China. That is an important strategic technology. It's bad enough that they've managed to advance as far as making 14nm chips!
 
I can certainly understand the cost/benefit ratio's would not allow building such a factory in the US, but there are other countries available that would especially appreciate the opportunity. Vietnam is one that comes to mind and I'm sure there are others. Also make you wonder if Samsung has done their research on just how many times China has brought in companies only to steal their technology, build a sister plant, then kill them by severely undercutting them on the open market.
 
....[ ]....While I don't like conspiracy theories, any country that uses dormitories filled with Chinese child slave labor surrounded by suicide nets is more than likely to be doing things like this. The leaks from the Hong Kong protests more than back this theory up....[ ]...
If anyone didn't see the Chi-Com government turning Hong Kong into a totalitarian cash cow for them after Britain 's lease expired, they must have been living in a dream world, "with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads". (Which of course, were up their behinds). I'm frankly surprised this didn't happen sooner.

Under British rule, (at one time), Hong Kong had the highest per capita income in the world, including the US. Look it up.
 
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