South Korea’s semiconductor giants are setting aside their rivalry to develop new standards for AI-optimized memory chips, marking a rare collaboration in the fiercely competitive memory market.
Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. are working to standardize specifications for Low Power Double Data Rate 6 with Processing In Memory technology through the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council. The partnership focuses on establishing unified technical requirements for internal bandwidth and other specifications crucial for on-device AI processing.
The collaboration comes as SK Hynix outperforms its larger rival, posting an operating profit of 7.3 trillion won ($5.6 billion) in the third quarter, compared with Samsung’s 3.86 trillion won ($3 billion).
Both companies previously attempted independent development of PIM technology, with Samsung launching HBM and LPDDR5 products and SK Hynix introducing GDDR6-PIM. However, differing specifications hampered widespread industry adoption.
The partnership targets the growing on-device AI market, which processes data locally rather than in the cloud. Market researcher MarketsandMarkets projects this sector to reach $173.9 billion by 2030, growing at 37.7% annually.
A Samsung representative said the companies are in early discussions about implementation timelines.
