This year's sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) market is expected to be split between Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Because Micron, the No. 3 company in the global memory semiconductor market, has failed to meet the performance requirements of the HBM4 market's largest customer, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expected to supply all HBM4.
According to overseas IT trade media on the 9th, semiconductor analysis firm SemiAnalysis revised Micron's HBM4 share in Nvidia's next-generation AI chip Vera Rubin down to 0%. SemiAnalysis said, "There are no signs Nvidia will order Micron's HBM4." The HBM4 supply split between SK hynix and Samsung Electronics is expected to be 70% and 30%, respectively.
Micron had initially been expected to supply less than 10% of HBM4, but it appears to have dropped out of the race entirely. The reason is its failure to meet Nvidia's specification requirements. According to market research firms such as TrendForce and industry sources, Nvidia raised HBM4's data transfer speed to at least 11 Gbps (11 gigabits per second) in the third quarter of last year. Micron publicly said it achieved 11 Gbps, but the industry believes Micron is struggling to meet this bar.
Competition over HBM4 supply is expected to narrow to a two-way race between Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Samsung Electronics plans to begin mass shipments of HBM4 to Nvidia this month and solidify its position as the "first supplier." SK hynix said it will maintain the No. 1 share in the HBM4 market on the back of its overwhelming lead in HBM3E.