The expansion project broke ground in May and builds on Samsung’s 18-year history of manufacturing NAND flash memory, with the most recent innovation being the industry-first sixth-generation (1xx-layer) V-NAND, introduced last July.
The new facility is located at the five-year-old Pyeongtaek campus, where Samsung operates two of the world’s largest-scale production lines.
Samsung said that through “balanced investment” across its global sites, it aims to maintain “a robust production network that will further cement its market leadership”.
“The new investment reaffirms our commitment to sustain undisputed leadership in memory technologies, even in uncertain times,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of memory global sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics.
“We will continue to serve the market with the most optimised solutions available, while contributing to growth of the overall IT industry and the economy in general.”
In 2017, Samsung invested US$7 billion in a new flash-memory production plant in China, to meet growing demand for NAND flash memory products.
In 2018, the firm stepped into data centres, with a facility on a former shooting range, one hour from the border with North Korea. At the time, the company said it would not rule out one day building a data centre in North Korea, where winter temperatures can be much cooler to help reduce server cooling costs, if the two countries are ever re-unified.
The recent moves will likely cement Samsung’s capabilities in mobile and data centre operations as consumer device sales continue a downward trend due to Covid-19. Samsung’s smartphone sales declined 22.7% in Q1, however the company maintained a leading market share of 18.5%.
The company has also been forced to revise financial forecasts as a result of the pandemic.
However, with renewed ambitions to capture market share in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) projects and technology, Samsung said the additional manufacturing capacity in Pyeongtaek will “play a major role in helping to address mid- to long-term demands for NAND flash memory”.
“As digital lifestyles become more prevalent, Samsung will continue to be proactive in making new investments in order to seize future market opportunities,” the company added.
