The memory semiconductor industry is focusing on making facility investments in 3D NAND-Flash memory, as the demand for high-capacity smartphones or PCs is expected to increase this year. 3D NAND-Flash products have faster speed and higher reliability than 2D products.

Samsung Electronics first installed 3D NAND Flash-based UFS (Universal Flash Storage) into Galaxy S7. The company will also carry out additional investments. 3D NAND-Flash factory in Xi'an is already filled up with permissible production capability of 100,000 sheets. Industries are predicting that 3D NAND-Flash will be mass-produced at 18 Line in Pyeongtaek that will start its operation next year.

Toshiba has recently decided to build an additional factory for 3D NAND-Flash and is going to invest $360 million yen ($3.2 billion). Toshiba has yet to make any clear announcement of production capability and completion date of its factory because it has yet to decide whether it is going to make co-investments with SanDisk.

In September of 2014, Toshiba made an announcement that it would tear down its 200mm factory and newly build 300mm factory to mass-produce 3D NAND-Flash. Completion date of 300mm factory and starting date of mass-production are going to be sometime in first half of this year.

SK Hynix started mass-producing 36-layer products at M12 Factory in Cheongju. By the time 48-layer products are finished with development, SK Hynix is going to officially convert M12 Factory to produce 3D NAND-Flash and produce 30,000 sheets per month based on introduction of wafer. SK Hynix is also going to mass-produce 3D NAND-Flash at 2-story M14 Line, which is a new factory in Icheon, and start constructing a cleanroom this year.

Micron is starting to convert 10X, which is a factory in Singapore for 2D NAND-Flash, into a factory for 3D NAND-Flash and is planning to enter mass-production system after middle-end of this year.

Intel invested $5.6 billion (6.5 trillion KRW) in Dalian, China and is converting system semiconductor factory into a production factory of 3D NAND-Flash. The company plans to start mass-producing 3D NAND-Flash in second half of this year. It is predicted that nonvolatile memory called 3D CrossPoint, which is co-developed with Micron, will be produced at this factory in the future.