Although China-based CXMT is reportedly mass producing HBM2 memory, Chinese high-tech giants like Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent are stockpiling high-bandwidth memory from Samsung as they expect the new U.S. export rules to restrict sales of HBM to Chinese entities, reports Reuters. Both Baidu and Huawei need HBM2E memory for their AI processors.
Now that it has become increasingly complex for Baidu and Huawei to obtain advanced AI processors, such as Nvidia's H100 or Intel's Gaudi, both companies have to rely on their own AI processors allegedly made by SMIC. However, they still need to get HBM2 memory for their processors, and it will take a while before they can validate memory from CXMT. So, for now, they will keep relying on Samsung's memory. In the first half of 2024, Chinese companies contributed to around 30% of Samsung's HBM revenue, according to Reuters.
