Hyundai and Samsung are expected to increase their share of the DRAM market to over 20 per cent each this year -- equating to about £2.7 billion. News of the Korean companies boosted status comes at the same time as a merger between Japanese chipmakers NEC and Hitachi. This link-up will give the combined company 15 per cent of the market, but is not expected to make any noticeable difference to the industry. The two companies do not plan to increase production investment. The Big Four -- Samsung, Hyundai, Micron Technology and NEC-Hitachi -- now share 70 per cent of the world market for memory. ®