[Peace&Chips] Up to 45% Annual Growth... Samsung and Hynix Gear Up for 'HBM Semiconductor' Battle

Prime Mover of the AI Era 'High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)'
SK Hynix Leads Market Share, Samsung Electronics Chases

Both Companies Announce Plans for HBM3 Successor Models
HBM Market Competition Heats Up in the Second Half of the Year

Editor's NoteSemiconductors, often called the rice of modern industry. Although it's a term we hear every day, it's hard to explain when asked. Peace & Chips will make the complex concepts and overall flow of the semiconductor industry easy to digest for you. Just bring your spoon.

With the ChatGPT craze, a star has emerged in the memory semiconductor field. It is the 'High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)'. To support artificial intelligence (AI) that requires massive data processing, servers need to be equipped with graphics processing units (GPUs) and high-performance, high-capacity memory, and this is where HBM is used.

HBM is a type of DRAM memory product. The name stands for 'High Bandwidth Memory', where bandwidth refers to the data carrying capacity. If memory is a data warehouse, bandwidth is the width of the road leading into the warehouse. HBM significantly increases bandwidth compared to regular DRAM, enabling faster data transfer speeds.

HBM achieves this function by stacking multiple DRAM chips vertically, which requires Through-Silicon Via (TSV) technology. TSV is a technology that drills tiny holes in DRAM chips and connects the upper and lower chips with electrodes. It is also used in NAND memory products, where cells are stacked vertically to increase capacity.

Currently, the HBM market size accounts for about 1.5% of the total DRAM market. Although still a small market, its growth potential is significant. Market research firm TrendForce forecasts that the HBM market will grow at an average annual rate exceeding 45% from this year through 2025. They expect the demand to surge as the AI era fully unfolds.

The HBM market includes players such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and the US-based Micron. According to TrendForce statistics, as of last year, SK Hynix held 50%, Samsung Electronics 40%, and Micron 10% market share. This year, SK Hynix's share is expected to increase to 53%.

SK Hynix was the first in the world to develop HBM in 2013. Since then, they have steadily developed technology by successively launching 1st generation (HBM), 2nd generation (HBM2), 3rd generation (HBM2E), and 4th generation (HBM3) products. Their mass-produced HBM3 has been recognized for its technology, supplying to Nvidia, the top GPU company.

Image of the 24-gigabyte (GB) HBM3 product unveiled by SK Hynix on the 20th of last month / [Image courtesy of SK Hynix]

SK Hynix is also set to introduce the next-generation model after HBM3, called HBM3E. Park Myung-su, SK Hynix's DRAM marketing head, announced during a conference call after last week's earnings report, "We plan to prepare samples of 8 gigabits per second (Gbps) HBM3E products in the second half of this year," forecasting mass production in the first half of next year.

Samsung Electronics has showcased HBM3 samples to the market and completed preparations for mass production. They appear somewhat behind SK Hynix but seem poised for a full-scale chase. Samsung also revealed during last week's conference call that "We plan to launch the HBM3P product in the second half of the year," indicating they will soon introduce the next generation after HBM3.

HBM3E and HBM3P are products of the same generation, differing only in the English word at the end. Of course, there may be differences in detailed specifications. SK Hynix named their product using the initial of Extended, while Samsung Electronics used Plus. We should pay close attention to the increasingly fierce technological competition between the two domestic semiconductor giants starting this second half.

This article is from [Peace & Chips], published weekly by Asia Economy. Click subscribe to receive articles for free.

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This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.