Samsung is seeing a strong demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips as artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to grow around the world. HBM is a special key memory chip that helps AI systems work faster and more efficiently.

According to the latest information, Samsung has increased the prices of its HBM3E memory chips by more than 50%. This price rise happened when Samsung renewed contracts with customers, showing that demand is much higher than supply.

In the past, one HBM3E 12-layer chip cost about $300. Now, many customers are paying close to $500 for the same chip. This price is similar to what is expected for Samsung’s next-generation HBM4 chips.

The main reason for higher prices is the growing competition among AI companies. Firms such as OpenAI, Google, xAI, and others are launching more powerful AI models. To make these AI systems faster and more efficient, companies need powerful and energy-saving memory chips like HBM3E.

Source – Samsung

HBM chips are made by stacking multiple DRAM layers together, which makes them complex and difficult to produce. Because of this, Samsung cannot quickly increase supply, even as orders continue to rise.

Government decisions are also affecting demand. The US government recently allowed Nvidia to export its H200 AI chip to China. Since the H200 uses HBM3E, this approval has pushed demand even higher, which causes prices of both 12-layer and 8-layer HBM products to rise.

Samsung is trying to increase supply by converting some NAND flash production lines into DRAM lines. However, this takes time and cannot solve the shortage right away.

Aside from this, Samsung plans to start mass production of its next-generation HBM4 chips early next year. Until then, experts believe demand will stay strong, and prices will remain high as AI technology continues to expand worldwide.

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