Server DRAM is set to overtake Mobile DRAM this year

Market research company TrendForce has shared its prediction for DRAM manufacturing in the coming year, and it looks like servers may just tip the scales to become the most important sector.

The firm reckons that server DRAM will account for 37.6% of the total bit output for 2023, placing it only just ahead of smartphones at 36.8%. While the difference may not seem significant, the significance really lies in the huge growth in the server market.

The predictions take into account the previous year’s trends and predictions for the current year based on several real-time factors, like the widescale emergence and adoption of artificial intelligence.

DRAM manufacturing 2023

Ordinarily, it’s possible that 2023 might not have been the year that server DRAM would have overtaken mobile DRAM and it’s possible that the trend might be reversed next year. This is because 2022 saw a significant mobile DRAM oversupply, and companies are now playing catchup trying to burn through existing inventory.

However, the prediction for both smartphone shipments and their increase in the average DRAM content remains fairly conservative, which could be an indication that companies are turning their attention elsewhere amid global economic pressure.

A recent boom in AI technology and other high-performance computing applications have seen the need for server DRAM increase more significantly. TrendForce projects that the average DRAM content of servers will increase by 12.1% YoY for 2023, compared with 6.7% for smartphones.

As it looks to the two or so years ahead, TrendForce expects this year’s predicted trend to continue as servers continue to overtake smartphones, which is largely down to the increasing prevalence of AI which has recently proven itself a public hit.

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