Q2 revenue-share ranking and the closing gap
Counterpoint Research's second-quarter 2026 DRAM revenue market share data, released August 4, showed Samsung Electronics at 39%, SK hynix at 26% and Micron Technology at 25%. The 1-point separation between SK hynix and Micron is the narrowest since SK hynix overtook Micron for second place in the second quarter of 2014, when SK hynix held 27% and Micron 26%. Samsung's share rebound returned it to the top spot a year after ceding first place to SK hynix.
SK hynix's share drop despite record revenue
SK hynix posted a 214% year-on-year surge in DRAM revenue but saw its market share fall from 39% a year earlier to 26%. Counterpoint attributed the decline to SK hynix's higher exposure to high-bandwidth memory (HBM), where average selling prices have softened because of HBM3E price drops and a delay in HBM4 launches, and to long-term supply agreements negotiated in the previous pricing environment that locked in lower rates. Counterpoint principal analyst Choi Jeong-gu said Samsung's rebound had "completely erased all of its previous underperformance," citing both commodity DRAM demand and pricing and expanded HBM share.
CXMT and Nanya accelerate up the ranking
China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) captured a 7% share in Q2, nearly doubling its slice within a year and cementing its place as the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker. Counterpoint described CXMT as "the fastest-growing DRAM supplier in the world, driven by robust domestic demand for commodity DRAM and rapid capacity expansion." CXMT's revenue jumped 716% year-on-year, while Taiwan's Nanya Technology posted 690% year-on-year revenue growth on demand for DDR4 and low-power DDR4/5 products. CXMT is pursuing a second Beijing memory fab aimed at roughly 600,000 wafers per month, approaching the roughly 650,000 to 700,000 wafers Samsung produces monthly.
HBM outlook and the supply-demand backdrop
Counterpoint projected significant HBM4 shipments to begin in the third quarter as racks based on Nvidia's Vera Rubin and AMD's Instinct MI455X GPUs roll out, and said a sharp HBM price rebound is likely next year in line with continued conventional DRAM price increases. The Korean reports noted that explosive memory demand has outpaced what the three established suppliers can supply, helping push prices sharply higher. According to one of the reports, Apple has been lobbying the Trump administration to allow it to use CXMT-made memory chips, though the other report does not mention that lobbying.
What remains uncertain
The two reports agree on Samsung, SK hynix and Micron's Q2 share figures and on CXMT's rapid revenue growth, but they differ on the geopolitical angle: only the Herald Business account describes Apple's reported lobbying of the Trump administration over CXMT memory chips. Counterpoint's near-term view is that HBM4 volumes will start in Q3, but it flagged the rebound in HBM pricing as a 2027 expectation rather than an immediate catalyst.
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