Sales from June to August this year surged 93% compared to last year
Micron, a U.S. semiconductor company known as the "barometer of semiconductor performance," has exceeded market expectations with strong sales of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), raising expectations for the performance of SK Hynix, the No. 1 player in the HBM market, and Samsung Electronics, the No. 2 player.
On the 25th (local time), Micron announced its fiscal 2024 Q4 (June-August) results after the New York Stock Exchange closed. During this period, sales reached $7.75 billion (approximately 10.3 trillion KRW), a 93% increase compared to the same period last year. This amount surpassed Wall Street's forecast of $7.66 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) were $1.18, also exceeding the market expectation of $1.12.
Micron projected that sales for the recently started fiscal 2025 Q1 would be about $8.7 billion, exceeding the market average estimate of $8.32 billion. Adjusted earnings per share, excluding certain items, were also forecasted at approximately $1.74, significantly surpassing the market expectation of $1.52.
Recently, Morgan Stanley released a report titled "Winter is Coming," forecasting that HBM will face oversupply starting next year. They predicted that with weakening mobile and PC demand, DRAM prices will fall, leading to another downturn in the semiconductor market. They analyzed that if Samsung Electronics passes the HBM3E quality test and begins full-scale supply to Nvidia, an oversupply situation will emerge.
However, on this day, Micron dispelled concerns about a "semiconductor winter," stating, "HBM demand is outpacing supply. All production for this year and next year has been sold out, and prices have already been set."
Following Micron's earnings announcement, interest in the Q2 performance of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, competitors in the HBM market, has also increased. Thanks to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), HBM sales have surged, leading to expectations that related companies' earnings will also improve.
On the 26th, SK Hynix announced that it has become the world's first to mass-produce a new 12-layer HBM3E product with the largest existing HBM capacity of 36GB (gigabytes). Based on its leadership in the HBM market, it is expected to maintain an advantage in 12-layer products for the time being.
Samsung Electronics stated in its Q2 earnings conference call that it plans to begin mass production and full-scale supply of the 8-layer HBM3E product within Q3 and will also supply the 12-layer product in the second half of the year.
According to market research firm TrendForce, last year’s HBM market share was SK Hynix 53%, Samsung Electronics 38%, and Micron 9%.
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