Samsung Electronics is expected to spend more on facility investment than its rivals in the second half of this year to maintain its dominance in the 3-D NAND flash segment, amid heated rivalry in the global semiconductor market.

According to market research firm IC Insights, Samsung is predicted to increase its capital expenditure by 120 percent in the July-December period from $3.4 billion in the previous half to $7.5 billion. The research firm had earlier forecast that Samsung would spend about $11 billion as capital spending around this year.


Samsung unloading more than two-thirds of its annual investment on facilities in the second half of the year is seen as a move to gain an upper hand amid intensifying competition with two other semiconductor heavyweights.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp. are also likely to increase their capital spending in the same period to expand production lines for vertical NAND memory chips and non-memory chips for smartphones, the firm said.

In the second half, TSMC is likely to spend $6.5 billion, a 92 percent increase from the previous half, while Intel is expected to spend $5.8 billion, a 61 percent increase.

The South Korean chipmaker has said that it aims to expand its production lines for vertical NAND memory chips, in which the memory cells are laid vertically in multiple stages. The 3-D NAND has a higher density than 2-D NAND and costs lower per bit.

Samsung is expected to make up 63 percent of overall 3-D NAND production capacity this year, according to a report by Hi Investment and Securities.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)