Samsung Bets on Upcoming Deal With Nvidia to Catch Up in AI Chip Race

Samsung Electronics said on Friday it is in "close discussion" to supply its next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, or HBM4, to Nvidia, as the South Korean chipmaker scrambles to catch up with rivals in the AI chip race.

Samsung, which plans to market the new chip next year, did not specify when it aims to ship the latest version of its HBM chip, a key building block of artificial intelligence chipsets.

Local rival SK Hynix, Nvidia's top HBM chip supplier, on Wednesday said it aims to start shipping its latest HBM4 chips in the fourth quarter and expand sales next year.

Nvidia, in a statement announcing cooperation with Samsung and other Korean companies, said it is in "key supply collaboration for HBM3E and HBM4", without elaborating.

Samsung has been slower to capitalise on the AI-driven memory chip boom, leading to weaker earnings performance and a reshuffle of its chip division last year. Its earnings recovered this quarter, driven by conventional memory chip demand.

This week, it said it sells its current-generation HBM3E chips to "all related customers", indicating it has joined rivals in supplying the latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia.

The launch of HBM4 chips will be a major test of Samsung's ability to regain its edge in the market, analysts said.

HBM - a type of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) standard first produced in 2013 - involves stacking chips vertically to save space and reduce power consumption, helping to process the large volume of data generated by complex AI applications.

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