Automotive semiconductors. Yonhap News
Korean semiconductor companies are lagging significantly behind their U.S. rivals in the global automotive chip market, ceding more than half the market share, and need to strengthen their competitiveness, an industry research body said.
The Korea Automotive Technology Institute made the assessment in a report titled “Automotive Semiconductors, the Blind Spot of K-Memory” released Wednesday, noting that “Korean companies are uniquely falling behind foreign rivals in market share specifically in automotive semiconductors, with the gap widening.”
According to the institute, U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology posted revenue of $3.688 billion in the automotive memory market in 2024, capturing a 51.7% market share. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) held shares of just 16.8% and 3.0%, respectively. The institute noted that the combined share of the two companies leading Korea’s semiconductor industry falls short of even half of Micron’s share. “Korean companies have focused on high-performance, high-capacity semiconductors for artificial intelligence (AI) servers and mobile devices,” the institute said. “They entered the automotive market as latecomers in the mid-2010s, which delayed the accumulation of reliability technology and the securing of competitiveness.”
The institute advised that strengthening the competitiveness of Korean companies is urgent given the growth potential of the automotive semiconductor market. With the spread of autonomous driving and software-defined vehicles (SDVs), the automotive memory market is projected to grow from $7.39 billion in 2025 to $12.5 billion in 2030, an average annual growth rate of 11.1%. The institute viewed that automotive memory commands higher unit prices than mobile and consumer electronics memory, and long-term supply contracts are common, which could provide a stable revenue source even during future industry downturns.
“At this point, when the bargaining power of memory companies has greatly improved, entry into the automotive memory market must be strengthened,” the institute said. “Diversification of the revenue structure is required to prepare for future down cycles. Following the example of Micron, the automotive industry needs close technical cooperation with system-on-chip (SoC) companies such as Qualcomm, Mobileye, and Nvidia.”