Global semiconductor industry leader SK Hynix has posted record sales of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), citing the burgeoning demand for AI memory solutions as a key growth driver. These sales made a significant contribution to the company’s profitability in the fourth quarter, and SK Hynix Vice President Kim Ki-tae sees a general uptick for the industry on the horizon as the services arising out of the diversification and evolution of generative AI begin to ramp up.
Kim Ki-tae described HBM’s transformational effect on the semiconductor environment, noting that its greater performance and capacity were changing the traditional mold of memory semiconductors as mere components within a system. This is leading to a paradigm shift as memory technologies are increasingly seen as crucial to advanced computing and AI applications.
“Although there are many uncertainties in the external market, we forecast that the memory market will gradually recover starting this quarter and will turn warm from next year amid substantial semiconductor demand from the world’s major IT companies,” Kim Ki-tae said in the Korea Times. “HBM3E’s sales will likely increase on the backs of rapidly rising AI device demands, such as PCs and smartphones, which will in turn fuel DDR5 and LPDDR5T’s sales.”
According to Kim Ki-tae, SK Hynix’s HBM products are already sold out for the year, a clear indicator of the demand and its strength in the space. The company sees strong HBM sales momentum heading into 2024, with SK Hynix already gearing up for an expected jump in demand in 2025.
In addition to its success in the HBM market, SK Hynix is reportedly set to expand its U.S. presence, with a new advanced packaging plant in Indiana. In a move to reduce U.S. reliance on advanced chips out of Taiwan, the effort will see a new facility rise to focus on 3D stacking for HBM production. It is further evidence of SK Hynix’s commitment to advance AI and other advanced computing technologies and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry overall.
