Samsung Takes Big Leap in HBM Race, Samples HBM4 with Industry Titans - Catching Up in the HBM Race
Samsung is reported to be taking a leap of giant proportions in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) race. Samsung, the South Korean technology titan, is already sampling its latest HBM4 process with the industry's giants. The move is crucial as Samsung attempts to get back into the game in the competitive memory segment, especially after facing some setbacks with the previous HBM generations.
Challenges and Future Ahead
It has not been smooth sailing for Samsung's HBM plans of late. Though they've been trying their level best to qualify their HBM3 memory, particularly with a flagship customer like NVIDIA, the going has been hard. In a recent report from Korean news site Hankyung, Samsung now aims to penetrate more general application usage and turn around their HBM unit fortunes by sampling their HBM4 process with titans like NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Google.
Catching Up in the HBM4 Race
Samsung within the HBM4 space is generally playing catch-up with some of its lead rivals. Companies like SK Hynix and Micron seem to be in the lead, with reports suggesting they are already ramping up to achieve mass production levels after approval from the key stakeholders like NVIDIA. SK Hynix even recently demonstrated its HBM4 innovation, demonstrating they are ahead of their initial mass-production timeline. Micron also intends to start shipping HBM4 to customers later this year. This level of competition requires Samsung to demonstrate a strong selling point with their HBM4.
What We Know About Samsung's HBM4 Tech
Details on Samsung's HBM4 technology are emerging. They're apparently taking the route of stacking both semiconductor and logic dies. Specifically, Samsung will use its internal 4nm process from its foundry division for the logic piece and couple it with their top-of-the-line 10nm 6th-generation 1c DRAM. On paper, at least, this technology has some wonderful credentials and is purported to be targeted to compete head-to-head against what competition like SK Hynix are brewing.
The Road Ahead: Delivery Timeline and Market Trust
With sampling currently underway, the projected delivery date for Samsung's HBM4 is now in the first half of 2026. This delivery timeline looks slightly more in the future than the projected availability from some of its competitors. The question hanging over Samsung's HBM4 project is whether or not subsequent customers, particularly those that had issues with previous generations like HBM3E (as reportedly happened with Google and NVIDIA's qualification testing), will have faith in Samsung for their next-generation high-performance memory needs. This HBM4 generation could be the tipping point for Samsung to reset its reputation and prove its follow-through in this all-important segment.
