Micron and China Chip Makers Fight for Market Share. There's One Big Loser.
South Korea's SK Hynix looks to be feeling the pressure as its DRAM market share dropped to 25% from 29% in the preceding quarter. In NAND, Sandisk's market share fell to 11% from 13%.Micron shares were down 0.6% in Wednesday's premarket. American depositary receipts of SK Hynix were falling 2.8% and Sandisk shares were slipping 0.7%.Of course market-share figures don't tell the full story. For one thing, the memory-chip market is growing so fast that there is still massive revenue and profit growth for all the participants even with a dip in share. The DRAM market grew 57% in the second quarter from the prior quarter and NAND grew 70%, Counterpoint said.Another thing to bear in mind is companies are shifting their resources. SK Hynix for example has redirected some of its manufacturing toward high-bandwidth memory, the specialized form of DRAM used in artificial-intelligence hardware, sacrificing some of the broader market for a stronger position in the most valuable future market.Sti
