Samsung takes lead in shipping top-end AI memory chip samples

[SEOUL] Samsung Electronics has begun shipping samples of the industry’s most advanced memory to customers, taking an early lead in a race to supply the essential components for artificial intelligence accelerators made by the likes of Nvidia.

South Korea’s largest company said that it has started shipping its first 12-layer HBM4E samples to major clients. That’s after Samsung kicked off mass production of HBM4 in February, a milestone that underscored the rapid pace of development in the high-bandwidth memory market.

HBM chips, which stack multiple layers of DRAM vertically to dramatically increase data transfer speeds while reducing power consumption, have become a critical component in AI processors used for training and deploying large language models such as ChatGPT.

Memory makers are competing to secure design wins for future AI systems, where demand for faster and more power-efficient memory continues to surge alongside investments in AI infrastructure.

Samsung’s early push into 12-layer HBM4 could strengthen its position against rivals, such as SK Hynix, seeking to capitalise on the AI boom. Securing customer qualification and volume orders ahead of competitors would help the company regain momentum in the premium memory segment, where manufacturers are racing to meet the growing requirements of next-generation AI accelerators.

SK Hynix said in April that it’s targeting mass production of HBM4E in 2027 and supplying HBM4E samples to customers in the second half of this year. BLOOMBERG