(Feb 11): Samsung Electronics Co is back at the top of the memory industry with its new HBM4 technology, president and chip division chief technology officer Jaihyuk Song said on Wednesday, erasing a drop in the company’s shares.
The uncharacteristically strong expression of confidence came on the sidelines of the Semicon Korea conference in Seoul, where Song served as a keynote speaker. His comments followed an earlier endorsement of a “Samsung is back” message by one of the electronics giant’s top executives in January, bolstering expectations that Samsung’s next generation of high bandwidth memory (HBM) will be embraced by leading artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia Corp. The company is set to begin mass production of HBM4 this month, with Nvidia expected to be the first customer.
“We are now demonstrating Samsung’s true capabilities once again,” Song told reporters. “While we may not have fully shown the side of Samsung that responds to customer needs with world-class technology for some time, you can see this as us returning to our original state.”
The AI era that triggered runaway demand for Nvidia’s graphics chips — the best accelerators for training and operating AI models — saw rival SK Hynix Inc take the technological lead and dominate Nvidia’s orders for HBM, a requisite part for AI. But recent months have seen Samsung close the gap, and now the larger company appears highly confident in its new technology.
The two South Korean companies, now the country’s most valuable by far, have seen their shares surge since September as concerns about a memory supply shortage escalated. Song sees a severe crunch this year and next, he said at Semicon.
See also: Alphabet set to raise almost US$32 bil debt in intense AI race
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