Essential AI Components
SK hynix, the developer of the world’s first 12-layer HBM3 product, is targeting to double the sales of high bandwidth memory (HBM) and double data rate (DDR) 5, essential components for AI servers, next year.
According to industry sources on July 20, at a recent private corporate briefing (IR) for major institutional investors and securities analysts, SK hynix projected that the scale of its two product lines would grow more than twofold in 2024.
The price and demand for HBM and DDR5 are growing due to the surge in AI demand. The high-performance memory HBM, which vertically connects multiple DRAM, is known to be 5 to 6 times more expensive than existing DRAM products. The price of DDR5, the latest DRAM standard, is also formed 15 to 20% higher than its predecessor, DDR4.
Although SK hynix’s HBM sales ratio is less than 1% in volume, it grows to about 10% based on sales. If the scale of the HBM3 and DDR5 businesses doubles, it is expected to accelerate revenue growth and profit improvement. Given that SK hynix is estimated to have a loss of over 6 trillion won in the first half of this year, this is interpreted as the company’s willingness to rebound through high-value-added memory in the market.
Vice President of SK hynix Park Myoung-soo expressed an optimistic view of the overall market growth. He estimated that the share of AI server memory (including HBM, DDR4, and DDR5) in the overall server memory market will increase from 17% this year to 38% in five years, and the new DRAM demand caused by the AI server effect will accumulate up to 40 billion gigabytes over the next five years. After the initial 5 years of AI integration into everyday life, as the demand and devices using it increase, the impact on the DRAM market is expected to grow 3 to 5 times.
SK hynix also revealed a specific road map for its next-generation products. They set 2026 as the production target for the 6th generation HBM product, HBM4. Currently, SK hynix has confirmed the first half of next year as the production time for its next-generation product HBM3E. Technically, there was an explanation about the “Mass Rework Molded Underfill,” the first package technology developed by SK hynix, which involves stacking chips on chips. SK hynix publicly stated that they will apply a next-generation post-processing technique, “hybrid bonding,” to HBM4 products. Compared to the existing process, “Non-Conductive Film,” it increases heat dissipation efficiency and reduces the wiring length, which results in a higher Input/Output density. This will increase the current maximum of 12 layers to 16 layers.
The technology and quantity competition in the semiconductor industry, including SK hynix, surrounding high value-added DRAM is expected to become fiercer by the day. Samsung Electronics, which plans to start HBM3 production by the end of this year, is planning to invest several hundred billion won to double the HBM production capacity at its Cheonan, Chungnam site. From the fourth quarter, Samsung’s HBM3 will also be supplied to Nvidia, which is currently monopolized by SK hynix’s HBM.