Industry Eyes Samsung's Potential to Prove Competitiveness in HBM4
Samsung Electronics has reportedly passed NVIDIA's quality verification with its fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the HBM3E 12-layer product.
According to the semiconductor industry on September 19, Samsung Electronics recently received quality certification for its HBM3E 12-layer product from NVIDIA and is preparing for delivery. This comes about 19 months after the company succeeded in developing the product in February of last year.
Until now, Samsung had supplied HBM3E to American semiconductor design companies AMD and Broadcom but had repeatedly failed NVIDIA's quality tests.
HBM is a type of memory installed in artificial intelligence semiconductors, where DRAM chips are stacked to increase data processing speeds. High-performance semiconductor companies like NVIDIA are major customers for this product.
Currently, SK Hynix is responsible for 75% of the HBM3E supply for NVIDIA, and Samsung Electronics is joining as the third supplier, following SK Hynix and Micron. Regarding this, a Samsung Electronics representative stated, "We cannot confirm any customer-related matters."
Although the initial supply volume is not large, the industry views this as a significant step for Samsung, which had previously been evaluated as having failed quality tests, indicating that the company is now on the right track. There are also expectations that Samsung will be able to demonstrate a certain level of competitiveness in the upcoming next-generation HBM4 competition.
An industry official commented, "From NVIDIA's perspective, relying solely on a single supplier is risky," adding, "Since Samsung has secured technological capabilities with HBM3E, there is a possibility that the company will also achieve results with HBM4."
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