Samsung Electronics is accelerating development of its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), "HBM4E." It is said to be planning to complete development of the first HBM4E sample to reach the target performance next month. Based on that, Samsung Electronics plans to finish internal validation and deliver it to customers. After officially releasing the industry's first mass production shipment of sixth-generation HBM (HBM4) recently, the company aims to seize the next-generation HBM market as well.
According to the industry on the 16th, Samsung Electronics is understood to be planning to produce the first sample of HBM4E next month. The foundry (contract chip manufacturing) division will produce, by mid-month, the logic die sample that serves as the "brain" of HBM4E with significantly improved performance over the previous generation, deliver it to the memory division, and package it together with DRAM for HBM4E to manufacture the sample. After internal performance evaluation, Samsung Electronics is said to deliver samples that meet the target level to Nvidia.
Earlier in March, Samsung Electronics unveiled a physical HBM4E at Nvidia's annual flagship developer conference, GTC 2026. However, in the industry, the prevailing view is that the product was a sample for display purposes. Samsung Electronics appears to have not yet manufactured samples at a meaningful level that meet the performance criteria required by customers such as Nvidia.
Samsung Electronics plans to speed up HBM4E development to preempt the next-generation HBM market. Earlier, Samsung Electronics took a gamble by applying advanced process technology to HBM4 compared with rivals and said it succeeded in the industry's first mass production shipment. The company says both the HBM4 logic die and DRAM for HBM4 used more advanced processes than competitors SK hynix and Micron, giving it a performance edge. It is currently said to be concentrating all efforts on improving profitability.
Samsung Electronics is applying the same 4-nanometer foundry process to the logic die in HBM4E as in HBM4, and a 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) process to the DRAM. While some newly applied sub-processes for performance improvements mean it is not exactly the same process, compared with rivals that are using a foundry advanced process and 1c DRAM in HBM4E for the first time, it is being evaluated as technologically more stable.
Meanwhile, SK hynix is also said to be going all-out on HBM4E development. SK hynix is known to be applying a DRAM one generation ahead of the DRAM for HBM4 to HBM4E and prioritizing the application of TSMC's 3-nanometer process to the logic die. Previously, SK hynix used TSMC's 12-nanometer process for the HBM4 logic die and a 10-nanometer-class fifth-generation (1b) process for the DRAM for HBM4. If it focused on business stability by leveraging processes validated in HBM4, it is understood to be setting a strategy to gain a performance edge in HBM4E.
A semiconductor industry official said, "While the launch of Nvidia's AI chip Vera Rubin series, which will use HBM4 and HBM4E, is being somewhat delayed and production volumes are being partially adjusted, Samsung Electronics is putting great effort into the next-generation market to avoid repeating the mistake of yielding the market to competitors in the previous generation."