The global storage chip market is experiencing a structural split: AI chips are in short supply, while traditional DRAM and NAND are severely lacking, with prices soaring for several months in a row. Samsung's response is to invest heavily in Vietnam - investing 39 trillion Vietnamese dong, about 1.5 billion US dollars, to build a semiconductor testing plant. This is its first testing plant in Vietnam, located in the Taiyuan Industrial Park, 60 kilometers away from Hanoi, adjacent to existing mobile phone and tablet manufacturing facilities. The project has started construction in early 2026 and is scheduled to be put into operation in November 2027. Since April, more than 200 engineers and employees have been stationed on site.

Capacity is being squeezed by AI

The core background is that major manufacturers are fully shifting towards AI data center chips with higher profits, and mature process memory chip production capacity is being squeezed out in large quantities. The supply of traditional chips required by industries such as smartphones, laptops, and automobiles continues to be tight, with prices rising all the way.

Samsung's new factory will have an annual production capacity of 153.3 billion gigabits of DRAM and 255.6 billion gigabits of NAND, precisely to fill this gap. According to the investment proposal, Samsung also plans to invest up to $2.5 billion in future profits to build a second factory. The Vietnamese government approved the project in March 2026.

Vietnam becomes a major testing center

Samsung is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with a cumulative committed investment of over 23 billion US dollars over the past few decades. Nowadays, Vietnam has gathered multiple multinational testing companies such as Intel, Amkor, Hana Micron, etc., and the industrial cluster effect is obvious. In the first quarter of 2026, Vietnam's electronic product exports increased by over 15% year-on-year, and semiconductor packaging and testing have become the core engine for its manufacturing industry upgrade. Keywords: Southeast Asian news, capacity expansion

AI is reshaping the logic of semiconductor investment, and whoever controls traditional chip production capacity holds the trump card for the next cycle. Samsung's choice of Vietnam is not only a tactical move to address shortages, but also a strategic move to lock in the supply chain.Editor/Cheng Liting