Korean Domination
An outlook has emerged predicting a narrowing of the market share gap between SK hynix and Samsung Electronics in the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market.
HBM is a technology that boosts functionality by vertically stacking multiple DRAM modules. This innovation is integrated into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) used in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.
According to Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce on Aug. 9, the global HBM market share for the previous year was distributed as follows: SK hynix held 50 percent, followed by Samsung Electronics with 40 percent and Micron with 10 percent.
Due to an upswing in Samsung Electronics’ Cloud Service Provider (CSP) contracts, this year is expected to witness a contraction in the market share difference between Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. In line with this, TrendForce has forecast that the market share for this year will hover between 46 percent and 49 percent for each company.
Next year, a marginal difference is also anticipated to be observed, ranging from 47 percent to 49 percent. TrendForce explained, “While SK hynix is currently leading in HBM3 production as a major supplier for NVIDIA server GPUs, Samsung Electronics is focusing on fulfilling orders from other CSPs.”
It also added, “Micron may experience a slight decline in market share over the next two years due to the aggressive business expansions of the two South Korean companies.” TrendForce projected that Micron’s HBM market share, which stood at 10 percent last year, would contract to 4 to 6 percent this year and further diminish to 3 to 5 percent next year.
The demand for HBM is shifting from the third generation, HBM2e, to the fourth generation, HBM3. Last year, the demand distribution was 70 percent for HBM2e and 8 percent for HBM3. However, with the successive release of chips incorporating HBM3 into the market, the proportional usage of each generation is expected to change. For this year, it is projected that HBM2e will account for 50 percent while HBM3 will be at 39 percent. Looking ahead to next year, this distribution is expected to flip, with HBM2e decreasing to 25 percent and HBM3 increasing to 60 percent.
After fourth-generation HBM3, development will continue with fifth-generation HBM3e and then sixth-generation HBM4. Both SK hynix and Samsung Electronics are preparing for the mass production of fifth and sixth-generation products.
On the other hand, NVIDIA, a leading force in the AI computing technology domain, introduced its next-generation AI chip, the “GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip,” during the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference held in Los Angeles on Aug. 8 (local time). NVIDIA has outlined its plan to begin production of the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, featuring HBM3e, starting in the second quarter of the upcoming year.