With the discontinuation of DDR4 production by Micron, Chinese players such as CXMT will take care of the demand, but prices are still likely to increase in the coming months.
After Samsung and SK Hynix, Micron Leaves the DDR4 Market for Smaller Players; Will Focus on Newer Memory Products
Major memory manufacturers have shown interest in transitioning to newer memories like DDR5 and LPDDR5 due to their booming demand and more profits. To fulfill the demand, companies like Samsung and SK Hynix have freed up some of their manufacturing capacity by drastically dropping the production of DDR4 memories. While DDR4 production is still ongoing, it will halt significantly in the next few months.
Samsung recently announced that it is dropping DDR4 production in favor of the latest DDR5 memories, and now Micron has announced that it is halting the mass production of DDR4 in the coming months. According to Digitimes, the production will continue but will drop drastically before the end of this year. This leaves the burden on other smaller players, such as CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies), which has rapidly ramped up DDR4 production in recent years.
Taiwanese memory makers such as Winbond and Nanya have also expanded their DDR4 fabs, ensuring they can fill the gaps when the memory giants, such as Samsung and Micron, exit the DDR4 market. The decision to stop DDR4 production didn't come due to lower demand but due to transitioning to faster and newer memories. DDR5, LPDDR5, and HBM memories are more lucrative for these giants, and they have been ramping up their production to fulfill the demands of their clients and consumers.
Micron has just started sampling its next-gen HBM4 memory to its clients, offering an incredible 2048-bit interface for AI servers. DDR4 seems no longer as profitable as these faster memories, which is why DDR4 production will dwindle drastically this year.
Smaller players will have to fill these supply gaps as the demand for DDR4 still exists and will remain in the near future, since millions of DDR4-compatible systems still exist. And while the DDR4 made by Chinese manufacturers is cheaper, the Chief Business Officer of Micron, Sumit Sadana, says that the DDR4 will suffer major supply gaps, which will eventually result in more expensive DDR4 memories than DDR5 and LPDDR5.
News Source: Tomshardware
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