Reuters reported on 21 October that Samsung and SK Hynix are upgrading NAND plants in China, with Samsung targeting 286-layer chips at Xian, up from about 200 layers currently made there.
Xian accounts for about 40 per cent of Samsung’s global NAND output. Under an internal project called Monami, Samsung aims to produce 5,000 wafers a month there in December 2026 and 40,000 by December 2027, a person familiar with the plan told Reuters. Samsung said the upgrade complied with US export rules and would not expand production capacity.
SK Hynix is looking to move its Dalian operation from 192-layer chips to products with 240 layers or more. The plant came with its 2021 purchase of Intel’s NAND operations and is now part of Solidigm. An earlier AI Affairs report linked SK Hynix’s US factory plan to approval for equipment exports to China.
Yangtze Memory Technologies held 38.5 per cent of China’s NAND market in the second quarter, against 28 per cent across 2025, according to Omdia figures reported by Reuters. Samsung’s share fell to 33.5 per cent from 36 per cent, and SK Hynix’s to 17 per cent from 20 per cent. Both companies must seek annual US licences to install US-made equipment at their China plants. Reuters said it could not determine how far US authorities had licensed equipment needed for the upgrades.
