Along with competitors, Samsung Electronics anticipates that demand for artificial intelligence will remain high and lead to a tightening of supply for some high-end chips. This will result in a robust recovery in the battered global memory chip industry.
The world’s largest memory chip manufacturer announced a more than 10-fold increase in first-quarter operating profit on Tuesday, and its optimistic outlook caused its shares to gain 1.8%.
Though it is attempting to catch up to its smaller rival in the supply of premium chips, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), AI leader Nvidia (NVDA), Samsung’s shares have decreased 0.8% so far this year, trailing SK Hynix’s 24% gain.
During a call with investors, Samsung vice president in charge of the memory division, Jae Jun Kim, stated, “We plan to increase supply of HBM-related chips by more than threefold versus last year.”
Samsung announced that it has started mass producing the most recent HBM chips, known as 8-layer HBM3E, for use in generative AI chipsets this month. It is attempting to profit from the AI boom that has helped SK Hynix, which was Nvidia’s only source of HBM3 processors.
By the end of the year, two-thirds of Samsung’s HBM output is anticipated to come from its newest HBM3E products. The company announced that it will begin producing the 12-layer version in the second quarter.
The aims, according to analysts, were aggressive.
According to Jeff Kim, head of research at KB Securities, Nvidia appears to be receiving Samsung’s 8-layer HBM3E, while AMD and Nvidia may receive the 12-layer. Biden awards Samsung subsidies totaling $6.4 billion to increase semiconductor production in Texas.
