Kim Gwiwook, Head of HBM Advanced Technology Team, at IMW 2024
"Starting from 5th generation products, shortened to a 1-year cycle" statement
SK Hynix is expected to complete the development of the 7th generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), HBM4E, as early as 2026.
On the 13th, Kim Gwiwook, head of SK Hynix's HBM Advanced Technology Team, stated at the International Memory Workshop (IMW 2024) held at Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, "HBM has evolved every two years up to the 4th generation (HBM3) products, but since the 5th generation (HBM3E) products, the development cycle has shortened to one year."
Although SK Hynix has not yet formalized the HBM4E roadmap, considering the market trend of a one-year development cycle, it is interpreted that development could be completed by 2026.
SK Hynix has virtually monopolized the supply of HBM3 to Nvidia, a major player in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market, and in March, it became the first memory company to start delivering the 8-stack HBM3E products.
They are also providing samples of the 12-stack HBM3E products this month and are preparing for mass production in the third quarter. Additionally, the mass production of the 6th generation 12-stack HBM4 products, originally scheduled for 2026, is planned to be advanced to next year.
Kwack Nojung, CEO of SK Hynix, announced these plans at a press conference on the 2nd, emphasizing, "After this year, the HBM market will continue to grow due to factors such as the increase in the number of parameters for AI performance improvement and the expansion of AI service providers."
Last month, SK Hynix also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for technical cooperation with Taiwan's TSMC, the world's leading foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company, to collaborate on the development of HBM4 scheduled for mass production in 2026.
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