[Core Information] Micron’s Q3 revenue increased by more than 30% year-on-year, with DRAM leading the increase, and industry production capacity focused on advanced processes

On June 27, 2025, the global semiconductor industry ushered in multiple core developments: Micron reported outstanding results, the DRAM market experienced a historic price inversion, Samsung accelerated its production capacity and technology upgrades, the foundry market grew steadily, domestic chips continued to make breakthroughs in the fields of display drivers and automotive specifications, and the industry as a whole showed a clear trend of advanced process expansion, storage structure restructuring, and domestic accelerated breakthroughs.

1. Micron’s Q3 revenue increased by 36.56% year-on-year, and DRAM revenue hit a historical peak

Micron announced its financial report for the third fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2025 (as of May 29), with strong core performance: revenue reached US$9.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 36.56%, and a month-on-month increase of 15.50%; GAAP net profit was US$1.885 billion, approximately 5.6 times that of the same period last year, and a month-on-month increase of 19%.

Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman, president and CEO of Micron Technology, said that the record revenue in the third fiscal quarter was mainly driven by the DRAM business, and its DRAM revenue hit a record high. Among them, HBM (high-bandwidth memory) revenue increased by nearly 50% month-on-month, becoming the core growth engine.At the same time, the data center business performed outstandingly, with revenue more than doubling year-on-year and setting a new quarterly high; the consumer-facing end market grew strongly quarter-on-quarter, further supporting overall performance growth.

Looking forward, Micron expects revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 to reach US$10.7 billion (plus or minus US$300 million), a further increase of approximately 15% compared to the third fiscal quarter, continuing the growth trend.

2. The DRAM market is experiencing a historic inversion, with DDR4 prices exceeding DDR5 prices.

In line with the strong growth of Micron's DRAM business, the spot price of DDR4 memory has skyrocketed recently. For the first time in DRAM history, the price of the previous generation product far exceeded the latest specifications: on June 23, the price of a 16Gb capacity DDR4 chip was twice as expensive as a DDR5 chip of the same capacity, an increase of 100%.

Looking back at the recent trend, DDR4 spot prices have increased by about 50% in just two weeks, and since this quarter, the prices of various capacities have more than doubled.Industry insiders pointed out that the core reason for the emergence of this historic moment is that the original manufacturer has clearly planned to withdraw from the mid-to-low-end DRAM market, resulting in the continued contraction of DDR4 supply. However, the market demand is still strong, and the shortage of supply is expected to continue.In addition, as DDR4 spot prices continue to soar, subsequent contract prices are expected to rise simultaneously.

3. Samsung accelerates layout: hybrid factory implementation + DRAM technology breakthrough

In the storage field, Samsung Electronics continues to increase production capacity and technology investment, making dual efforts to consolidate its market position.On the one hand, the pace of investment in Samsung's Pyeongtaek Park 4 factory (P4) is accelerating. The external construction of the second phase (PH2) and the fourth phase (PH4) is expected to be officially launched in the second half of 2025, with a total investment of approximately 7 trillion won.Among them, the PH1 factory was originally designed as a NAND flash memory factory and has been transformed into a hybrid factory that produces both NAND and 10-nanometer fourth-generation (1a) DRAM. The equipment installation is currently in the final stage; the positioning of PH2 is still under discussion and may become a pure DRAM production base or a hybrid wafer fab.It is worth noting that the equipment installation and test operation goals of the factory have been 2-3 months ahead of schedule, and the production capacity has been implemented faster than expected.

On the other hand, Samsung has achieved a major breakthrough in DRAM technology and successfully created a new DRAM structure that occupies a smaller area, generates lower heat, and has smoother power and information transmission, and plans to apply it to 1c DRAM.This technology will support the mass production of HBM4 in the second half of the year. Currently, Samsung has increased the production yield of the latest DRAM to more than 60%. At the same time, it is continuing to promote yield optimization and cooperate with customers to conduct product testing to lay the foundation for large-scale mass production.

4. The OEM market is growing steadily, and advanced process production capacity is facing explosive expansion.

A Counterpoint Research report shows that the total revenue of the global semiconductor foundry 2.0 market in the first quarter of 2025 reached US$72.29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.This growth is mainly due to the increasing demand for advanced processes and advanced packaging of AI/HPC chips. Among them, pure wafer foundry increased by 26% year-on-year, and OSAT (outsourced packaging and testing) increased by 6.8% year-on-year.

The concept of semiconductor foundry 2.0 was proposed by TSMC. In addition to pure wafer foundry, it also covers non-storage fields such as IDM, OSAT outsourcing packaging and testing, and photomask manufacturing and supply.In terms of enterprise share, TSMC ranks first with a share of 35.3% and has grown steadily over the year; Intel Foundry returned to second place with a share of 6.5%, followed by ASE, Samsung Wafer Foundry, Texas Instruments, and Infineon, ranking third to sixth respectively.

The report released by SEMI further predicts that AI will become the core driving force for the growth of semiconductor manufacturing capacity: from the end of 2024 to 2028, global semiconductor manufacturing capacity will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7%, reaching 11.1 million wafers per monthcircle; among them, the production capacity of advanced processes (7 nanometers and below) is growing the fastest. It is expected to grow from 850,000 pieces per month in 2024 to 1.4 million pieces in 2028, an increase of approximately 69%, and a compound annual growth rate of 14%, which is twice the industry average.In addition, capital expenditures on advanced process equipment will surge to more than US$50 billion in 2028, an increase of 94% from 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 18%.

5. Breakthrough of domestic chips: display driver and automotive chips continue to increase in volume

Domestic semiconductor companies continue to make breakthroughs in segmented fields, achieving the launch of key products and increasing production capacity.GC Micro announced that its first AMOLED display driver chip GC3A71 has been successfully delivered to smart watch customers. The chip is targeted at the high-end wearable market and has the advantages of 400*400 high resolution, low power consumption, wide color gamut, etc. It supports COG and COF dual packaging, is compatible with hard and flexible AMOLED screens, and can operate stably in a wide temperature range of -40°C to 85°C. It is based on the 55nm process and balances performance and cost, and has been highly recognized by customers.

In the field of automotive chips, NavInfo's subsidiary Jiefa Technology has performed well. Its SoC chip shipments have reached 90 million sets, and MCU chip shipments have exceeded 70 million.At present, Jiefa Technology has built a complete MCU product matrix at the beginning, mid-range and high-end, focusing on AC780x, AC784x, AC787x and MCU+ series products, implementing a localized layout of the entire industry chain to adapt to the future development trend of new E/E architectures. Its SoC and MCU product lines have passed automotive certification and have been stably mass-produced for multiple generations.

6. Industry Summary