Samsung Electronics will increase investment at its chip factory in China by $8 billion to boost production of NAND flash memory chips, Chinese media reported on Tuesday. The South Korean group's investment comes as the memory market is expected to rebound next year because of limited supplies and rising demand for fifth-generation devices and networks.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, which can hold data permanently and are found in mobile devices, memory cards, USB flash drives and solid-state drives. In 2017, Samsung announced that it would invest $7 billion over three years in its Xi'an plant that produces NAND flash memory chips. Those investment phases follow an earlier $10.8 billion investment into a testing and packaging plant in Xi'an.