Samsung Electronics executive officer J.Y. Lee (center) inspects the packaging line during a visit to Samsung Electronics’ Cheonan campus in 2023. Data from Samsung Electronics. Infographic by Asia Today, translated by UPI
June 23 (Asia Today) — Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman J.Y. Lee visited the company’s Cheonan campus on Tuesday for the first time in more than three years to inspect high-bandwidth memory packaging operations as competition intensifies in the artificial intelligence chip market.
According to Samsung Electronics, Lee toured the C1 and C2 production lines at its Cheonan campus, about 83 miles south of Seoul.
After receiving an explanation about factory operations, production planning, and technology development, Mr. Lee wore a clean room suit and toured HBM’s packaging line. He reviewed the business’ production capacity and quality control system.
The Cheonan campus is Samsung’s main production center for HBM back-end processing and advanced packaging.
HBM connects multiple dynamic random access memory chips in a vertical stack to achieve the high-speed data transfer required for AI accelerators.
Unlike traditional memory products, HBM’s performance and production yields are highly dependent on advanced packaging, including the processes used to connect, assemble, and test stacked chips.
Lee’s visit comes as Samsung seeks to strengthen its position in next-generation HBM after falling behind SK Hynix in the HBM3 and HBM3E markets.
Samsung began mass production and commercial shipment of the 6th generation HBM4 in February, and described this achievement as an industry first.
In May, the company shipped samples of its 7th generation product, the 12-layer HBM4E, to major customers around the world.
According to industry sources, sales of Samsung’s HBM4 exceeded $1 billion about four months after it began shipping. Sales are expected to exceed $1.2 billion by the end of June.
Some industry estimates say HBM4’s revenue could exceed $10 billion by the end of 2026 as Samsung ramps up production. Samsung has not disclosed sales figures for either.
The company said it expects HBM’s total sales to more than triple this year compared to 2025.
Market insiders said SK Hynix maintains an advantage in previous generation HBM, especially through its supply relationship with Nvidia. They said the competitive landscape could change as Samsung expands production of HBM4 and more technology companies develop their own AI accelerators.
Samsung’s broad semiconductor portfolio, including memory, logic chips, foundry manufacturing and advanced packaging, could help serve Nvidia and other chip designers and hyperscale data center operators developing customized AI systems.
Industry insiders said Samsung’s competitiveness could become more apparent as companies such as Google, Meta and Microsoft step up development of their own AI chips.
Samsung also announced a Universal Flash Storage 5.0 solution on Tuesday as it looks to expand its memory business beyond AI servers to devices that can run AI applications locally.
The company says the new storage product achieves data transfer speeds of up to 10.8 gigabytes per second, which is more than double the sequential read speed of the previous generation UFS 4.1 technology.
Samsung said the product’s power efficiency is more than 40% higher than UFS 4.1, which could enable smartphones, wearable devices, and augmented reality products to run AI applications while reducing battery consumption.
The company plans to begin mass production of UFS 5.0 products with capacities up to 1 terabyte in the fourth quarter.
Industry officials said HBM4 and UFS 5.0 demonstrate Samsung’s strategy to supply memory products for both cloud-based AI infrastructure and consumer devices running AI applications.
An industry insider said, “In the AI era, a comprehensive memory portfolio is becoming more important than the competitiveness of a single product.”
The official said Samsung’s HBM4 and UFS 5.0 advances could enhance its ability to serve markets ranging from AI data centers to smartphones and augmented reality devices.
— Asia Today reported. Translation by UPI
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Korea original report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260624010008193
