Neosem is showing strong performance. The news that Samsung Electronics will unveil a blueprint next month for the commercialization of AI ‘customized DRAM’ appears to be influencing the stock price. Samsung Electronics, which is at a disadvantage in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), is driving forward with next-generation memory, Compute Express Link (CXL) DRAM. The expectation that the highly profitable CXL-related market, often called the second HBM, will fully bloom this year seems to be affecting Neosem’s stock price.
At 10:01 a.m. on the 14th, Neosem was trading at 11,530 KRW, up 4.72% from the previous day.
Choi Jin-hyuk, head of Samsung Electronics’ DS Division Memory Research Lab in the Americas, will give a presentation titled “Leading HBM and CXL Innovations for High-Capacity Data Processing in the AI Era” at MEMCON 2024, a global semiconductor conference held in Silicon Valley, California, USA, on the 26th of next month (local time). Vice President Choi is expected to emphasize the possibility of commercialization of CXL DRAM within this year.
With forecasts that the CXL DRAM market will grow significantly this year, attention is focused on Vice President Choi’s presentation. CXL is a next-generation technology standard that efficiently connects different types of products in applications requiring high-performance computing such as AI, machine learning, and big data.
Competition to dominate the AI semiconductor market is intensifying with the advancement of AI technology. It was reported that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is raising funds amounting to 900 trillion KRW for AI semiconductor manufacturing. Due to on-device AI, which requires several times more memory capacity, expectations are growing that the post-HBM era will arrive sooner than anticipated.
Samsung Electronics is the only board member from the DRAM industry in the CXL Consortium, which was launched in 2019. It is a non-profit organization that discusses the future of the CXL memory ecosystem and develops technical standards. Besides Samsung Electronics, Microsoft, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, AMD, ARM, Intel, and IBM are also on the board. Intel, which accounts for more than 80% of global server CPUs, recently released products compatible with the CXL standard.
Samsung Electronics’ DS Division is reportedly considering commercializing PIM (Processing In Memory) for mobile DRAM LPDDR5 and graphics DRAM GDDR6. The plan is to apply PIM not only to enterprise AI servers but also to everyday devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs to enhance on-device AI. Samsung Electronics is developing PIM not as a general-purpose product but tailored to specific customers and applications.
On the 9th (local time), Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong inspected Samsung SDI’s (006400) battery factory located in Seremban, Malaysia, and said, “We should not shrink back because of difficulties but invest boldly.” He also said, “Let’s lead change through bold challenges,” and “Let’s create new value and secure solid competitiveness.” He reiterated the importance of ‘technology that does not exist in the world’ and urged technology-driven management.
Samsung Electronics’ drive toward next-generation Compute Express Link (CXL) DRAM, which is gaining attention as the ‘post-high-bandwidth memory (HBM)’ in preparation for the AI era, is a representative example.
Neosem explained that most of its product portfolio focuses on next-generation semiconductors such as DDR5 DRAM, high-stack NAND flash memory, CXL DRAM, and Gen5 SSD. It expects to benefit from the increasing demand for next-generation semiconductors as technologies like AI, big data, and autonomous driving advance. Neosem, which possesses outstanding technology in the SSD inspection field, has succeeded in securing the technological capabilities needed in the AI era. Seeing the growth potential of the CXL market, it developed and commercialized inspection equipment.
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