HBM competition intensifies: Samsung obtains AMD certification and accelerates its pursuit of SK Hynix

According to reports, AI accelerator cards currently face challenges not only from CoWoS packaging bottlenecks, but also from HBM limitations. The main reason is that the production cycle of HBM is longer than that of DDR5, and it takes at least two quarters from production to output and packaging.

NVIDIA's current mainstream H100 accelerator card uses HBM3 memory, but its main supplier SK Hynix is currently unable to meet the overall AI market demand. According to TrendForce, Samsung will join NVIDIA's supply chain with 1Znm products at the end of 2023. Although the proportion is still small, it can be regarded as a major breakthrough for Samsung in the HBM field.

Since Samsung has been AMD's most important strategic supply partner for a long time, in the first quarter of 2024, Samsung HBM3 products have successively passed the verification of AMD MI300 series, including its 8h and 12h products. Therefore, starting from the first quarter of 2024, Samsung HBM3 products will gradually increase in volume.

Starting from 2024, the market's focus will turn to HBM3e.It is expected that the volume will increase quarter by quarter in the second half of the year and gradually become the mainstream of the HBM market. According to TrendForce’s survey, SK Hynix was the first to pass the verification, followed closely by Micron, and began to submit HBM3e mass production products at the end of the first quarter to cooperate with NVIDIA, which plans to ship at the end of the second quarter. H200.Although Samsung submitted samples later than the other two suppliers, it is expected that its HBM3e will pass verification before the end of the first quarter and begin official shipments in the second quarter.