CXMT logo. Reuters-Yonhap News
The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) to build memory fabs in the United States, floating the prospect of targeted tariffs on semiconductors. Despite U.S. efforts to contain it, China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) captured a 10% share of the global DRAM market in the second quarter for the first time, underscoring how the global chip war is intensifying.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a CNBC appearance on the 2nd that Washington would introduce a “targeted and carefully designed” tariff policy for semiconductors. The remarks effectively formalize a chip tariff that the Trump administration has been threatening since last year.
Companies that build manufacturing facilities in the United States will receive tariff relief, while those that do not will have to pay tariffs, Lutnick said. He suggested that Taiwan’s TSMC and Micron, both of which are building large fabs in the United States, would qualify for reduced tariffs. Responding to the open tariff pressure, the presidential office said on the 3rd that it plans to monitor developments closely and consult with the U.S. side to prevent any adverse impact on Korean companies.
Meanwhile, CXMT’s DRAM market share by revenue rose 2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 10% in the second quarter, backed by sweeping support from the Chinese government, according to Counterpoint Research. A 10% share is regarded as a threshold that allows a chipmaker to secure meaningful market influence and recoup its investment costs.
CXMT held a market share of only about 1% in 2023 but has rapidly built its presence in commodity DRAM, helped by a memory supply crunch driven by rising artificial intelligence investment and by its own capacity expansion. Samsung Electronics kept the top spot in the DRAM market in the second quarter with a 38% share, while SK hynix slipped 4 percentage points from the previous quarter to 25%.