Yole Group said Korea plans to double wafer capacity over the next five years as demand for HBM expands beyond Nvidia GPUs to AI accelerators developed by large tech companies such as Google.
South Korea is projected to keep its lead in the global memory chip market through 2031, supported by heavier investment from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and a plan to double wafer capacity over the next five years. The outlook comes as demand for HBM (high-bandwidth memory) broadens from Nvidia graphics processing units to in-house AI accelerators built by large technology companies including Google, pointing to a wider customer base for advanced memory. Yole Group industry analyst Josefine Luh said at the 2026 Future of Memory and Storage conference in California on Aug. 4 local time that Korea would remain the memory industry leader through 2031. The analysis said the country’s edge should persist as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix expand both production capacity and technology development for next-generation DRAM, including HBM, and NAND.