Storage Is Out Of Stock, And IDM Also Needs To Find OEM

After the storage giant SanDisk was previously rumored to be looking for PSMC to cooperate, the latest news in the industry pointed out that Micron (Micron) is also talking about cooperation with PSMC (6770), forming a "double dragon pearl grabbing" situation, which also makes PSMC rise in value under this wave of storage boom.

For relevant news, Micron has not responded until the deadline yesterday (21st); PSMC said that it is indeed negotiating cooperation with a number of major manufacturers, but cannot disclose details.

However, Micron announced the urgency of additional storage investment and the establishment of new production capacity in the earnings conference last week, and raised capital expenditure for fiscal year 2026 from the original plan of $18 billion to $20 billion. For several key customers, Micron can only meet about 50% to two-thirds of its supply, and there is a strong demand for new capacity.

According to industry analysis, it often takes more than one to two years to build a new wafer fab, from the start of construction, the construction of clean rooms, equipment entry to mass production. In contrast, PSMC's new Causeway plant has completed the construction of the plant, and the factory design was originally centered on the storage process, which is highly in line with the needs of mass production in terms of space configuration, pipeline specifications or cleanroom conditions, becoming one of the few "ready-to-use production capacity" that can be quickly converted and immediately increased.

It is understood that the maximum monthly production capacity of PSMC's new Causeway plant can reach 40,000 to 50,000 pieces, and only about 8,000 pieces of equipment have been built, with an installed rate of only about 20%, and ample flexibility in expansion. Such a wafer factory that has been "built, but has not built equipment production capacity to the maximum" is very attractive to international manufacturers that urgently need new production capacity under the current extremely tight storage supply, making PSMC's new Causeway factory a popular fried chicken.

According to sources, there are at least three cooperation models that Micron and PSMC are discussing. The first is the "pure foundry" model, that is, Micron will move the 1x nanometer generation equipment from the existing Houli factory to the new factory of CSMC Causeway for production, and all wafers will be sold back to Micron, and PSMC will only recognize foundry revenue.

The second is the "technology transfer and equipment relocation" model, PSMC returns to the role of a storage product company, mass-produced wafer resale technology parent factory, and is more deeply bound to the original factory in terms of products and technology.

The third is the "distribution system", which can be regarded as an extended version of "mode 1 + mode 2", the biggest difference is that after the two parties negotiate the conditions, a certain proportion of the storage wafers produced by PSMC can be retained for self-sale. In the environment of soaring storage prices, the gross profit of products can be directly recognized, which is regarded as the most beneficial solution for PSMC.

It is rumored that South Korea's two major manufacturers, SK hynix and Samsung, have started production expansion

Industry analysts said on the 21st that competition in the global semiconductor industry has intensified, and South Korean chipmakers are accelerating storage production to meet demand from artificial intelligence (AI) servers.

Yonhap News Agency reported that Samsung Electronics has gradually increased the utilization of domestic DRAM and NAND flash storage production lines and expanded the production of high-end products such as high-bandwidth storage (HBM). Samsung decided in November to resume construction at Pyeongtaek Plant 5, which is scheduled to begin mass production in 2028, to strengthen the company's ability to meet the demand for advanced memory chips.

SK hynix's new M15X plant in Cheongju is also ready to go into production, which will focus on DRAM and other AI-oriented storage products. Industry executives said that SK hynix is trying to complete the first fab in the Yongin Semiconductor Park, which is equivalent to six M15X fabs, by 2027.

As AI-related demand is expected to continue to surge in the coming years, capacity is increasingly seen as a key determinant of competitiveness. According to market research agency Omdia, the global DRAM market is expected to reach $170 billion by 2026, up from $100 billion in 2024.