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Industry News
Date: June 2026
Category: Global Market Insights & Advanced Semiconductor Materials
The global semiconductor supply chain is witnessing a historic materials transition. South Korean memory giant SK Hynix recently completed production validation for its next-generation 375-layer 3D NAND flash memory, with mass production scheduled by the end of this year. The biggest technological breakthrough of this iteration lies in replacing conventional tungsten (W) with molybdenum (Mo) to fabricate critical word lines, signaling a clear structural shift from tungsten to molybdenum in advanced chip manufacturing.
For nearly 25 years, tungsten has been the standard interconnect metal in memory and logic chips. However, as 3D NAND technology scales beyond 300 and 400 vertical layers, electrical wiring narrows to extreme microscopic limits. At these sub-micron scales, tungsten’s electrical resistance surges dramatically, slowing down data transmission speeds. Furthermore, traditional tungsten deposition requires an additional barrier liner layer, which consumes precious space inside highly stacked architectures.
Molybdenum has emerged as the ultimate solution to overcome these physical scaling bottlenecks. At equivalent, ultra-fine dimensions, molybdenum exhibits significantly lower resistivity, resulting in faster write and erase speeds. Crucially, molybdenum can be deposited directly without an auxiliary liner layer, reducing overall stack thickness and enabling higher storage densities. Following Samsung's initial adoption of molybdenum in its 9th-generation NAND, SK Hynix's transition firmly cements molybdenum's position as the definitive tech-roadmap material for next-generation AI and high-performance computing memory. According to industry estimates, global chip-making demand for molybdenum is projected to climb from 14 tons this year to over 80 tons by 2030.
This semiconductor-driven surge is causing profound ripple effects across the entire refractory metals market. As global demand for high-purity molybdenum accelerates, raw material supply security, precise engineering tolerances, and material utilization have become paramount for industrial purchasing teams worldwide.
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