Micron Is One Point Behind SK Hynix in DRAM Revenue Share and 32 Points Behind in HBM

Micron Technology finished the second quarter of 2026 one percentage point behind SK Hynix for the No. 2 position in global DRAM revenue, according to Counterpoint Research figures reported by Korean media on Friday, October 2, 2026. Samsung Electronics stayed first with 38%, SK Hynix had 25% and Micron had 24%, and in the same week Micron's Taiwan chairman set out capacity additions at four sites on the island.

A quarter earlier the distance between SK Hynix and Micron was seven percentage points. SK Hynix lost four points of share in three months and Micron gained two. Counterpoint's first cut of the quarter, published in August, showed each of the three leaders one point higher and the same one-point distance between second and third.

DRAM market share by vendor, Q2 2026

All figures are Counterpoint Research revenue shares as carried by Korean outlets. The HBM column sums to slightly more than the whole because of rounding.

Why revenue share converged while the HBM ranking did not

The two right-hand columns measure different things. Total DRAM revenue share counts every DRAM product a vendor ships, priced at whatever each product fetched that quarter. HBM share counts only the stacked memory sold alongside AI accelerators. A vendor can lose ground in the first measure and still dominate the second, and that is what the second quarter shows for SK Hynix.

The cause sits in how the two product families are priced. HBM is sold largely under long-term contracts, so a rise in market prices reaches the supplier's revenue with a delay. Conventional DRAM for servers, PCs and phones reprices much faster, and Seoul Economic Daily, citing Counterpoint, reported that conventional DRAM prices rose far more steeply than HBM prices in the second quarter. SK Hynix devoted a larger part of its output to HBM than its rivals did, which left a smaller part of its revenue exposed to that repricing. Micron, with a product mix weighted more toward conventional DRAM, collected more of it. Counterpoint attributed Micron's gain to DRAM revenue that was about five times its level a year earlier.

The share loss at SK Hynix therefore reflects mix, and its revenue still grew. Its HBM position was little changed in rank: half of all HBM revenue, with Samsung second and Micron third. China's CXMT, which sells conventional DRAM into domestic demand, also gained two points in the quarter for the same pricing reason.

What Micron's Taiwan HBM capacity changes

Micron's Taiwan plan addresses the column where it trails. Micron Taiwan Chairman Donghui Lu said the company's cumulative investment on the island has passed NT$1.6 trillion, about US$50 billion, with roughly half of that spent in the past four years. The work is divided across four sites.

1. Mid-October 2026: a second advanced packaging facility in Taichung, Micron's largest Taiwan base, begins HBM production.
2. 2027-28: new wafer production lines in Taoyuan and in Tongluo, Miaoli County, are expected to begin operations.
3. Ongoing: wafer testing capacity is being expanded in Tainan.

The order of those additions matters. HBM output is limited first by stacking and packaging capacity, and the Taichung plant adds that capacity within weeks of the announcement. Additional wafers arrive more than a year later. Micron's HBM volume can therefore rise before its total DRAM wafer output does, which shifts its own mix toward the contract-priced product that weighed on SK Hynix's revenue share in the second quarter. Capacity that lifts a vendor's HBM share draws on the same wafers that earn conventional DRAM revenue.