Amidst all the theatrics of the ongoing China-U.S. semiconductor wars, SK Hynix—a South Korean giant also affected by tariffs—expects the global market for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence to grow by around 30% a year until 2030, driven by accelerating AI adoption and a shift toward more customized designs. The forecast, shared with Reuters, points to what the company sees as a long-term structural expansion in a sector traditionally treated like a commodity.
HBM is already one of the most sought-after components in AI datacenters, stacking memory dies vertically alongside a “base” logic die to improve performance and efficiency. SK Hynix, which commands the largest share of the HBM market, says demand is “firm and strong,” with capital spending by hyperscalers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google likely to be revised upward over time. The company estimates the market for custom HBM alone could be worth tens of billions of dollars by 2030.
