Samsung Electronics to supply HBM3 to Nvidia from Q4: Sources

[Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

Samsung Electronics Co. will supply high bandwidth memory 3 (HBM3) chips to Nvidia Corp., the world’s largest graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer, starting from the fourth quarter of 2023.

Multiple sources from the semiconductor industry said on Friday Samsung Electronics passed Nvidia’s final HBM3 quality test and will supply the chips.

U.S.-based Nvidia is a dominant player in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator market, which is essential in generative AI such as ChatGPT. HBM chips are loaded in AI accelerators.

Nvidia had initially focused orders on SK hynix Inc. as the generative AI market grew faster than expected. Samsung Electronics is also known to have become a supplier amid this growth in demand.

But Samsung Electronics did not make a related announcement, citing that “it is difficult to confirm customer details.”

The Korean tech giant also announced on Friday that it developed the industry’s first 32-gigabit (Gb) double-data rate 5 dynamic random-access memory (DDR5 DRAM) using 12 nanometer (nm)-class process technology.

The 32Gb capacity is the largest currently available for a single DRAM chip. Mass production is set to begin this year.

The achievement comes 40 years after Samsung Electronics developed its first 64-kilobit (Kb) DRAM in 1983, with a 500,000 times higher DRAM capacity.

Industry observers noted that Samsung Electronics’ successful development of the industry’s highest-capacity DRAM puts the company in an optimal position in the chip competition in the AI era as demand for high-capacity DRAM surges, particularly in the generative AI market.

The global data volume is projected to surpass 100 zettabytes (ZB) this year, driven by the emergence of new applications, according to sources.

Samsung Electronics is poised to take the lead in the burgeoning market with its high capacity, high –performance DRAM.

The overall semiconductor industry is also showing signs of rebounding, with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy saying on Friday outbound shipments of chips soared 16.2 percent in August from the previous month.

Samsung Electronics is also projected to see its earnings improve in the second half of this year. Shares of the tech giant soared by more than 6 percent on Friday, hitting the 70,000 won ($52.9) mark for the first time in a month.

“With our 12nm-class 32Gb DRAM, we have secured a solution enabling DRAM modules of up to 1-terabyte (TB), and we are ideally positioned to serve the growing need for high-capacity DRAM in the AI and big data era,” Hwang Sang-joon, executive vice president of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics, said. “We will continue to develop DRAM solutions through differentiated process and design technologies to break the boundaries of memory technology.”