Samsung Electronics will invest a total of $7 billion in its semiconductor business in China for the next three years, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.

The latest investment announcement in the China business is the biggest in five years since the Korean chipmaker established the plant in Xian in 2012. 

Samsung’s Xian facilities produce 3-D NAND flash memory chips whose demand is rapidly rising as mobile device manufacturers want chips with greater data storage space and faster processing capabilities. 

“The investment decision was made in order to respond to increasing market demand for 3-D NAND flash chips,” said a Samsung official. “Current supply falls short of demand.”

The Xian plant is operating at its full capacity, according to the official.

The company’s board on Monday approved the first batch worth $2.3 billion for the new investment, the regulatory filing said.

Including the additional China investment, Samsung will make a total of 37 trillion won of new investments in the semiconductor business at home and abroad by 2021.

In July, the company unveiled around 30 trillion won worth of investments for semiconductor and display fabrication facilities as it officially announced operations of the world’s single largest fabrication plant mainly for its fourth-generation 3-D NAND flash chips in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

Samsung remained the world’s top producer of 3-D NAND flash memory chips with a 38.3 percent market share as of the second quarter of 2017, according to IHS Markit.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)