U.S.-based SanDisk Corp. is expanding its presence in the global NAND flash market, narrowing its gap with industry leader Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Monday.
  

SanDisk's share in the global NAND flash market reached 15.4 percent in the third quarter, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by DRAMeXchange.
  

In contrast, Samsung Electronics garnered 31.5 percent of the market, down 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year, they showed.
  

Toshiba Corp. of Japan ranked No. 2 with a share of 20.5 percent in the third quarter, up 1.4 percentage points on-year.
  

SanDisk has been cited as one of the major symbols of the rise of Chinese capital in the NAND flash market, as SanDisk was acquired by U.S. Western Digital Corporation in October, a company whose 15 percent stake belongs to the Chinese company Tsinghua Unigroup.
  

Earlier this year, SanDisk sought to purchase Micron Inc. but faced opposition from U.S. policymakers, who feared a possible outflow of key technologies.
  

Industry watchers said China-backed chipmakers are set to continue efforts to narrow the gap with Samsung Electronics down the road, although they still need more time to catch up to the South Korean giant's technologies. (Yonhap)