Samsung holds 38% of DRAM sales as SK hynix narrows gap

Samsung Electronics kept first place in global DRAM revenue in the third quarter of 2026, with 38% of the market, according to JoongAng Daily, Seoul Economic Daily and Yonhap. DRAM is the working memory used in servers, PCs and phones.

SK hynix, Samsung’s main Korean rival in memory, lifted its share to 29%. That left 9 percentage points between the two companies, Seoul Economic Daily and JoongAng Daily reported.

The figures came out on a day when Samsung’s shares fell 7.57% in Seoul and the benchmark KOSPI index lost 5.28%. None of the reports linked the decline to the market share figures.

Higher prices, not more chips

The quarter set a record for DRAM revenue, and the gain came from higher prices rather than larger shipments, Chosunbiz reported. It added that commodity DDR and low-power LPDDR chips did better during the quarter than high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the stacked DRAM placed beside AI processors.

BusinessKorea reported that the global DRAM market has grown nearly fivefold. It pointed to heavier spending on AI data centers and to climbing memory prices.

Korea’s official trade figures show the price rise at the national level. The Bank of Korea’s export price index for DRAM, measured in US dollars with 2020 set at 100, stood at 289.16 in September 2026. That was 2.26% above August and 96.12% above January. The index covers Korea’s DRAM export prices as a whole, not Samsung’s own prices.

Looking at competition from China, JoongAng Daily reported that pressure on China’s CXMT could come from the supply of premium HBM4 chips.

A 107 trillion won quarter

The market share figures cover the same quarter in which Samsung posted its largest operating profit in at least six quarters. In preliminary consolidated figures filed on Oct 29, the company put third-quarter operating profit at 107.44 trillion won (about US$80.1 billion), on revenue of 195.25 trillion won.

Operating profit was up 20.06% from the second quarter and 783.11% from a year earlier. Preliminary figures are Samsung’s early estimate of the quarter.

Shares fall further than the KOSPI

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Samsung closed at 201,500 won on Nov 5, down 7.57% from 218,000 won a session earlier. Counted in dollars, the drop was slightly larger: 7.61%, to US$150.14, at 1,342.1 won per dollar.

The decline came in a broad slide across Korean shares. The KOSPI closed 5.28% lower at 5,383.8. On Nov 4, the session before, foreign investors posted net selling of 2.4977 trillion won (about US$1.86 billion) across all KOSPI shares. That is a market-wide figure, not one for Samsung alone.

Samsung’s size gives its moves weight across the market. At the Nov 5 close it was worth about 1,178 trillion won, or 28.73% of the total market value of the KOSPI 200, the index of Korea’s 200 largest listed companies. The stock has lost 13.15% over the last five sessions and 24.95% over the last 20.

US chip stocks were also under pressure. MarketWatch reported that Micron and other US chipmakers lost ground as election results undercut hopes for data-center spending. Barron’s reported a further decline in Micron’s shares as its market share shrank.

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Information only, not investment advice.