To Benefit from HBM3 Momentum
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed.
The use of GPUs and HBM for machine learning, which has grabbed the spotlight as of late, is on the rise. Hanmi Semiconductor is a manufacturer of indispensable bonding equipment for the application of HBM in the semiconductor domain.
To benefit from HBM3 momentum
Adhering to a Buy rating, we raise our TP on Hanmi Semiconductor from W15,000 to W18,000 on an upward revision to our earnings estimates for 2024 and beyond. The firm manufactures equipment such as through-silicon via (TSV)/TC bonders for the stacking of semiconductor dies. Recently, the company is manufacturing and supplying bonding equipment to customers to apply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to high-performance GPUs, which are essential for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The recently developed HBM3 is equipped with 1,024 data transmission paths (I/Os) and secures a data transmission rate of 6.4Gbps per pin, enabling 819GB of data processing per second, which is a 78% improvement in processing speed compared to HBM2E. HBM3 realizes a capacity of up to 24GB by vertically connecting 12 DRAM dies via the TSV process. Hanmi Semiconductor’s equipment is in use in the vertical die-stacking process.
HBM3 in use in Nvidia’s high-end products
HBM3 is being applied to Nvidia’s latest high-performance product (H100), which is seeing strong adoption in the machine learning space. With demand for machine learning algorithms having exploded as of late, demand for HBM3, as well as H100, is set to climb rapidly, and earnings at Hanmi Semiconductor should benefit. Despite the ongoing semiconductor downcycle, Hanmi Semiconductor is forecast to enjoy 2023 earnings growth with sales of W345.1bn (+1% y-y) and OP of W134.2bn (+9% y-y).
Also boding well is the fact that a hybrid bonding process that vertically stacks a logic die and a memory die is seeing mass-production. AMD and TSMC have named the hybrid bonding technology V-Cache and applied it to some Ryzen 7 models. In use in third-generation EPYC processors, V-Cache offers superior power efficiency and faster operating speeds versus conventionally structured transistors. Hanmi Semiconductor is a developer of equipment used in the hybrid bonding process.