Samsung invests $1.5 billion in Vietnam chip testing plant to ease AI shortage

Samsung Electronics is spending $1.5 billion to build its first semiconductor testing facility in Vietnam, betting on the country's manufacturing base to help close a global memory chip gap fueled by artificial intelligence demand.

Samsung Electronics plans to invest $1.5 billion in a semiconductor testing plant in Vietnam, a move that could ease a global memory chip shortage driven by surging demand from AI data centers. The facility, located 60 kilometers north of Hanoi in Thai Nguyen province, will be Samsung's first chip testing operation in the country, according to a company proposal document reviewed by Reuters.

The plant will handle 153.3 billion gigabits of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and 255.6 billion gigabits of NAND memory chips annually, the document showed. Operations are expected to begin by November 2027, with more than 200 Samsung engineers and staff already on site at the construction location. The facility will focus on legacy chips — older-generation memory products that remain critical for automotive, industrial, and telecommunications applications even as AI demand pushes the industry toward cutting-edge nodes.

Samsung has committed more than $23 billion to Vietnam across multiple facilities, including major smartphone and tablet production lines in Thai Nguyen. The new testing plant deepens Vietnam's role in the semiconductor back-end industry — the packaging, assembly, and testing stage that has become a bottleneck as chipmakers race to meet AI-driven demand. The global memory chip market has been under strain as hyperscale data center operators, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, compete for limited high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply to power AI training and inference workloads.

Why Vietnam Matters for Chip Supply Chains

Vietnam has emerged as a critical node in semiconductor supply chains as companies diversify manufacturing beyond China and Taiwan. Samsung's existing smartphone and electronics assembly operations in the country give it a ready pool of skilled labor and established logistics infrastructure. The Thai Nguyen facility already hosts Samsung's largest mobile phone production campus globally, producing tens of millions of devices annually.

The testing plant represents a vertical integration play for Samsung. By bringing chip testing in-house and locating it near existing assembly operations, the company can reduce shipping times and inventory costs for memory chips destined for its own devices and external customers. The move also hedges against geopolitical risks concentrated in traditional semiconductor hubs — a concern that has driven chipmakers to expand back-end operations across Southeast Asia.

Competitive Landscape and Market Impact

Samsung's investment comes as rivals also scale memory production. SK Hynix, Samsung's primary competitor in the high-bandwidth memory market, has invested heavily in advanced packaging capacity in South Korea and is expanding testing operations. Micron Technology, the third-largest memory maker, operates assembly and test facilities in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

The global memory chip market was valued at roughly $160 billion in 2025, with AI-related demand accounting for an estimated 30 percent of total DRAM consumption, according to industry data. Samsung controls about 40 percent of the global DRAM market and roughly 35 percent of the NAND flash market, making it the largest memory supplier by revenue. The Vietnam testing plant, while focused on legacy chips, frees up Samsung's existing testing capacity in South Korea and China to handle more advanced products, including the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) modules that AI data centers require.

Samsung shares trade at about 18 times forward earnings, a discount to SK Hynix's 22 times, reflecting investor concerns about Samsung's slower ramp in HBM production relative to its smaller rival. The Vietnam expansion signals that Samsung is investing across the full memory stack — from advanced HBM to legacy chips — to capture demand at every price point.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.