Cloud Big 3, Data Center Investment Resume… Samsung and SK Hynix also laugh

Input 2021.02.08 06:00

Amazon, MS, Google, cloud record-breaking fourth quarter
Server replacement cycle arrives, new CPUs are coming
Server DRAM price rise, Samsung and SK Hynix are also good

It was confirmed that the global cloud service company’Big 3’increased its sales in the fourth quarter of last year (October-December) one after another. Accordingly, in the semiconductor industry, there are reactions that it is a matter of time before these companies make full-fledged investments.

As external uncertainties persisted last year due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), cloud companies were in an atmosphere of refraining from large-scale investments, but now that there is a lot of livestock, there is no reason to postpone infrastructure investment further.

Looking at the Cloud Big 3 results released so far on the 8th, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the No. 1 in the industry, posted sales of $12.7 billion (about 14.3 trillion won) in the fourth quarter. It was the largest quarterly, up 34% from the fourth quarter of last year.

The intelligent cloud division of Microsoft (MS) generated sales of 14.6 billion dollars (about 16.4 trillion won) during this period. In particular,’Azer’, a cloud service, sharply increased its sales by 50%, breaking the record high.

Google Cloud, a latecomer, showed confidence by disclosing the performance of this business for the first time. In the fourth quarter, sales increased by nearly 47% to 3.8 billion dollars (about 4.3 trillion won).

Young-Geon Kim, researcher at Mirae Asset Daewoo said, “AWS and Microsoft are in sync with the usual time of investment, such as the arrival of a server replacement cycle, but most of them are using the highest performance ever and have secured new investment capacity.” We are investing.”

The industry has already determined that investments by these companies have shown signs of starting from the fourth quarter of last year. According to Canalis, a market research institute, the investment of cloud companies including Big 3 during this period was $39.9 billion (about 44.9 trillion won), up 32% from the same period last year and 10% from the previous quarter. Of these, AWS executed 32% of the total, followed by Microsoft Azure with 20% and Google Cloud with 7%.

Officials who are familiar with the situation in the semiconductor industry believe that server DRAM accumulation has started in earnest, centering on North American cloud companies. In addition, considering that prices will rise further as such demand rushes in the future, analysis shows that they have started accelerating inventory accumulation. In fact, the recently announced DRAM Exchange’s server DRAM price at the end of January was $115 (based on a 32GB module), which turned upward after 7 months. This is why it is evaluated that it has entered the beginning of the’semiconductor supercycle’.

Another big reason that cloud companies have delayed investment, Intel’s new server CPU (CPU) is also scheduled for early this year. Server DRAM to increase 35-40% of total DRAM sales Samsung Electronics (005930), SK hynix (000660)It deserves good news.

An industry insider said, “Cloud service infrastructure has been a growing industry that has attracted attention recently, but it is becoming more important as demand for online games, music streaming (real-time playback), and telecommuting increases due to the infectious disease pandemic caused by Corona 19 in the past year.” As the growth of companies began in earnest from the quarter, it is expected that from the first half of this year there will be aggressive investments to actively respond to these needs.”