Samsung Electronics has successfully developed its sixth-generation DRAM, known as 1c DRAM, built using a 10nm class process. The product has received internal Production Readiness Approval (PRA), signaling it has met key quality and performance benchmarks and is now in the final phase before mass production. The milestone brings Samsung one step closer to its goal of mass-producing HBM4, or fourth-generation high-bandwidth memory, in the second half of 2025.

Rare earth elements—critical to electric vehicles, defense systems, and advanced electronics—are once again at the center of geopolitical tensions. China, which controls more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth refining and processing capacity, continues to wield outsized influence over global supply.