Samsung Electronics has forecasted a strong demand for artificial intelligence, which is expected to tighten the supply of high-end chips. This positive outlook comes as the global memory chip market experiences a solid rebound, with the world's largest memory chip maker reporting a more than 10-fold rise in first-quarter operating profit. Despite this, Samsung's shares have seen a slight decline this year, in contrast to SK Hynix's significant gain.
In an effort to catch up with its rival, Samsung plans to increase the supply of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, particularly for AI applications. The company aims to boost the supply of HBM-related chips by more than three-fold compared to the previous year, with mass production of the latest 8-layer HBM3E chips already underway.
Samsung's aggressive targets include plans to start manufacturing the 12-layer version in the second quarter, with expectations that HBM3E products will make up a significant portion of its HBM output by the end of the year. Analysts have noted that Samsung's technology advantages in high-stacking could position it as a key supplier to AI leaders like Nvidia and AMD.
While Samsung's 8-layer HBM3E chips are likely to be supplied to Nvidia, the 12-layer version may cater to both AMD and Nvidia. The company is focused on improving the yield of its 12-layer product to meet the growing demand for high-end memory solutions in AI applications.
In addition to HBM chips, Samsung also plans to enhance its offerings of high-end solid-state drive (SSD) products to meet the increasing demand for AI servers. As a result, the supply of high-end memory chips is expected to become tighter towards the end of the year, with capacity being directed towards HBM production.
