Beyond HBM: Samsung, SK hynix target AI data center storage

详细摘要

Rapid AI data center expansion is pushing Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to compete over high-capacity enterprise solid-state drives, as the AI infrastructure race moves toward…

Surging inference workloads drive demand for faster, higher-capacity SSDs

Rapid AI data center expansion is pushing Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to compete over high-capacity enterprise solid-state drives, as the AI infrastructure race moves toward storage solutions.

For much of the AI boom, investment has focused on computing power required to accelerate AI model training, particularly graphics processing units (GPUs) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). But as large language models become more complex and AI inference services expand, the industry faces another challenge: how to efficiently store, retrieve and move the massive volumes of data generated by AI systems.

Enterprise SSDs are emerging as a key part of this shift as AI workloads push them closer to the computing process itself. Storage is increasingly becoming part of AI infrastructure, particularly in inference environments where data access speed and latency can directly affect performance.

According to market tracker TrendForce, combined revenue from the world’s top five eSSD suppliers reached $37.59 billion in the second quarter, up 103.6 percent from the previous quarter. The growth was driven by expanding AI infrastructure investment, rising demand from cloud service providers and increasing adoption of high-capacity storage products.

Samsung Electronics maintained its leadership in the eSSD market with a 35.1 percent share. The company benefited from increased shipments of quad-level cell-based products and PCIe 5.0 SSDs as global cloud providers upgraded their AI data center infrastructure.

“Demand for server SSDs is increasing rapidly across AI servers, general-purpose servers and dedicated storage servers for key-value cache as agentic AI continues to expand,” a Samsung Electronics official said.

The company expects server SSDs to account for more than 60 percent of its NAND flash revenue this year as AI-related demand continues to grow.

TrendForce said Samsung has strengthened its position among…

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