By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics plans to start production of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, or HBM4, next month and supply them to Nvidia, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Samsung has been trying to catch up with cross-town rival SK Hynix, a primary supplier for advanced memory chips crucial for Nvidia’s AI accelerators, after supply delays had hit its earnings and share prices earlier last year.
Samsung shares climbed 2.2% while rival Hynix shares were down 2.9% in morning trade.
The person declined to give details such as how many chips it plans to supply to Nvidia.
A Samsung spokesperson declined to comment, while Nvidia was not immediately available for comment.
South Korean newspaper Korea Economic Daily reported on Monday that Samsung passed HBM4 qualification tests for Nvidia and AMD and will start shipping to Nvidia next month, citing chip industry sources.
SK Hynix said in October it has completed HBM supply talks with major customers for next year.
SK Hynix plans to begin deploying silicon wafers next month into a new fab, M15X, in Cheongju, South Korea, to produce HBM chips, an executive at the company told Reuters earlier this month, without elaborating on whether HBM4 will be part of the initial production.
Both Samsung and SK Hynix are set to announce their fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday when they are expected to share details of HBM4 orders.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said early this month that the company’s next-generation chips, the Vera Rubin platform, is in “full production,” as the U.S. company prepares to launch the chips, to be paired with HBM4 chips, later this year.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jamie Freed and Shri Navaratnam)
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