Capital spending among chipmakers is expected reach US$90.8 billion this year, an industry tracker said Friday, with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. leading the pact.

According to the data compiled by IC Insights, Samsung Electronics' annual facility investment for this year is estimated at $26 billion, accounting for more than 20 percent of the total investments planned by these companies.

The semiconductor market researcher said Samsung is presumed to have allocated $14 billion for the 3D NAND flash segment, followed by $7 billion and $5 billion for the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and foundry sectors, respectively.

IC Insight said the "unprecedented" aggressive investment by Samsung is anticipated to lead to overcapacity in the 3D NAND flash market.

"This overcapacity situation will not only be due to Samsung's huge spending for 3D NAND flash but also to its competitors in this market segment responding to the company's spending surge," the industry tracker said, referring to SK hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc.

"At some point, Samsung's competitors will need to ramp up their capacity or lose market share," it added.

IC Insights added traditional leaders such as Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron will continue to take the lead against Chinese players down the road.

"This year's level of spending by Samsung just about guarantees that without some type of joint venture with a large existing memory suppler, new Chinese memory startups stand little chance of competing on the same level as today's leading suppliers," the industry tracker said.

By: DocMemory
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