Samsung Electronics is positioned to be the biggest beneficiary of China’s AI data center investments, as China expands its AI footprint and Samsung’s memory and accelerator needs align with Chinese demand.

Samsung’s advantage is driven by higher demand for memory and accelerators, since Chinese-made AI accelerators currently lag Nvidia GPUs in efficiency.

There exists a competitiveness gap in high-performance server DRAM between Samsung and CXMT, highlighting ongoing technology and product differentiation challenges in the Chinese market.

KB Securities expects China’s push for semiconductor localization to raise, not reduce, Samsung’s memory demand."

The forecast framework anticipates greater server computational power and memory capacity per unit as AI models advance, with stronger inference demand and broader use of Samsung’s own AI accelerators.

Chinese tech giants including Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are reportedly seeking long-term memory supply contracts with Samsung and considering outsourcing foundry for self-developed AI accelerators.

The AI data center investment cycle is two-sided: while the U.S. is leading, China is accelerating, with total investments in AI data centers across both nations projected to hit about $5 trillion from 2026 to 2030.

Annual AI data center investments in the U.S. and China are expected to exceed KRW 1,800 trillion.