Seoul: Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday indicated progress in its efforts to supply advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to the U.S.-based AI leader Nvidia. The South Korean technology company has faced challenges in passing Nvidia’s quality tests for its HBM3E chips, as competitor SK hynix Inc. has already commenced mass production of 12-layer HBM3E chips.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Jae-june, vice president for memory business at Samsung Electronics, announced during a conference call-following the release of the company’s third-quarter earnings-that they are currently producing both eight-layer and 12-layer HBM3E products. Kim emphasized that the company has made “meaningful progress” in meeting the quality testing standards required by a “major customer,” presumed to be Nvidia. As Nvidia’s GPUs are critical for AI computing, this development is significant for Samsung’s market position.
Kim further stated that Samsung anticipates an increase in sales in the fourth quarter, addressing
prior concerns that the company was lagging in providing HBM products to Nvidia. Samsung Electronics also reported a more than 70 percent rise in its third-quarter HBM sales compared to the previous quarter, with expectations that the fifth-generation HBM3E chips will make up 50 percent of total HBM sales in the upcoming quarter.
The company is expanding its sales of eight- and 12-layer HBM3E chips to several customers and is working on enhancing its HBM3E offerings to align with the next-generation GPU plans of a major customer. Additionally, Samsung Electronics is in the process of developing sixth-generation HBM4 products, with mass production slated to begin in the latter half of the next year.
Despite these advancements, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division reported a 3.86 trillion won (approximately US$2.8 billion) operating profit for the third quarter, which fell short of the market expectation of 4.2 trillion won. Nonetheless, shares of Samsung Electronics saw a slight increase of 0.17 perce
nt, closing at 59,200 won on the Seoul main bourse, outperforming the KOSPI’s 1.45 percent decline.