Samsung Electronics will receive the presidential award, part of Korea's top technology honors, for its memory semiconductor product, the GDDR7 DRAM.
Samsung Electronics said on the 3rd that at the opening ceremony of the "2025 Korea Tech Festival" held at Coex in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, it will receive a presidential citation for the world's first 12-nanometer (nm; 1 nm = one-billionth of a meter) "40Gbps 24Gb GDDR7 DRAM." This is the most presidential awards won by a single corporations, with a record 11.
Samsung Electronics' GDDR7 is being evaluated as next-generation DRAM optimized for graphics and artificial intelligence (AI) computing. In particular, compared with high bandwidth memory (HBM), GDDR7 shows strengths in expense efficiency, power efficiency, and light weight.
GDDR7 applies high-performance, low-power circuit design technologies such as a dual-power architecture and a power-gating design technique that minimizes leakage current. Power efficiency has improved by 30%. It will be installed not only in top-tier graphics cards, gaming consoles, and laptops, but also in next-generation servers and data centers. In particular, it is a product expected to see high usability in AI inference.
With this award as a turning point, Samsung Electronics plans to solidify its leadership in next-generation memory technology and accelerate technology-driven management. Earlier, through year-end personnel moves, Samsung Electronics created an organization in charge of memory development, speeding up efforts to preempt future technologies.
Kim Dong-Won, a KB Securities analyst, said, "Recently, Nvidia made a large request to Samsung Electronics to significantly expand GDDR7 supply, and production capacity at the Pyeongtaek line will more than double," adding that Samsung Electronics is expected to maintain its exclusive supply position of GDDR7 to Nvidia for the time being.