According to media reports, Samsung Electronics has recently entered Nvidia’s accelerator card supply chain and plans to start supplying HBM3 memory to Nvidia in October. Previously, Samsung has confirmed to supply HBM3 to AMD, and it is expected that Samsung's share in the HBM market will exceed 50% next year.
Lee Se-chul, executive director of Citi Global Markets Securities, said: "Samsung will supply HBM3 to Nvidia starting from the fourth quarter of this year and become a major supplier." Citi also raised Samsung's target price from 110,000 won to 120,000 won, and It is said that Samsung will become a key supplier of HBM3 memory chips, including major customers including Nvidia.
In this regard, Samsung said that it could not confirm the relevant information about the supply to customers such as Nvidia.
In the past, SK Hynix has been the exclusive supplier of Nvidia. Therefore, once Samsung completes the technical verification of supplying HBM3 chips to Nvidia, it may be responsible for processing individual GPU chips and HBM3 into advanced packaging orders for H100. Previously, there were also reports about the cooperation between Samsung and Nvidia in HBM3 technology verification and advanced packaging services.
It is reported that Samsung is also willing to design intermediate wafers for Nvidia, and can purchase AI GPU wafers from TSMC, then purchase HBM3 from Samsung's memory chip business unit, and finally use Samsung's I-Cube 2.5D packaging technology to complete the product.
Samsung is the only company that can provide both advanced packaging solutions and HBM products. AMD originally planned to use TSMC's CoWoS advanced packaging services, but due to tight production capacity and most of it being occupied by Nvidia, it was unable to meet AMD's needs. Therefore, AMD ultimately chose the advanced packaging services provided by Samsung.
Samsung's HBM3 and HBM3P are expected to bring profit growth to the company's chip division starting next year. According to data from research firm TrendForce, in the HBM product market in 2022, SK Hynix will account for 50% of the market share, Samsung will account for 40%, and Micron will account for 10%. However, HBM's share of the entire DRAM market is only 1%. The agency predicts that from this year to 2025, the HBM market will maintain a rapid growth of 45% every year.
Some analysts believe that if Samsung can enter Nvidia's chip supply chain, it will be possible to supply 30% of HBM3 to Nvidia by 2024. This will further consolidate Samsung's position in the semiconductor industry and bring it more business opportunities and revenue.