AI race makes Samsung cut HBM chip cycle from 2 years to just 1

HBM memory is an integral part of several accelerators that drive the Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. And Samsung is one of the leading companies in the HBM and DRAM space and aims to drastically shorten its development cycles to align with the AI growth trajectory.

For years, Samsung has developed new HBM standards at a two-year pace. The memory maker currently offers HBM3E as its latest and most advanced technology, with HBM4 being the next step.

And HBM4 is expected to launch later this year with next-generation accelerators such as NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform and AMD’s Instinct MI400 platforms. Many companies also use older HBM standards to avoid increasing costs while offering competitive value.

But as the growth of AI is occurring at a rapid pace, Samsung has decided that its two-year HBM development cycle is no longer viable for the company. Therefore, the company decided to adopt an annual cycle, which will allow it to launch next-generation HBM standards at an accelerated pace.

Market fit

Credits: Wallpaper Access.

With this, Samsung is aligning itself with the sector, which has adopted an annual cadence in terms of launching AI accelerators. At the same time, this will help Samsung maintain a competitive advantage over HBM competitors, such as Micron and SK Hynix.

An annual cycle ensures Samsung’s survival and prevents it from falling behind in terms of technology. However, the company needs to ensure that this works, delivering quality and quantity.

The advantage is that Samsung does everything in-house, from base chip production to memory stacking and packaging. And the company also has an ideal base chip solution that is compatible with its HBM designs.
Technologies like Hybrid Bonding are also crucial as they pave the way for next-generation custom HBM solutions like HBM5 and custom HBM. The first of these efforts will be seen with HBM4E, which is on track to be released for sampling in the second half of this year.

Competitive advantages

The quality of Samsung’s products is so high that it is the victim of counterfeits that challenge even more advanced users. And recently, the company raised DRAM memory prices by 30%, defying drop forecasts.

However, this does not mean that the company does not have its problems and flaws in Samsung’s 2nm make it difficult for Qualcomm to advance beyond TSMC.

The company’s significant advantage is that it does not rely solely on memories. For the 7th consecutive year, the company leads the global gaming monitor market and surpassed 5 million QD-OLED monitors sold, leading the premium market.

Source: Busan Newswith translation of Wccftech.