Samsung's most advanced memory chip for AI servers yet, HBM4, started shipping earlier this year. Now, just a few months after the mass production of these chips began, the South Korean firm has crossed a major milestone in its production.
Samsung's HBM4 production crosses the 80% yield milestone
According to a report from Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung has achieved an 80% yield in the production of its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4). Yield refers to the percentage of total chips that pass all quality control tests and are completely defect-free.
A yield of 80% or more is considered a “golden yield,” as that is when the chip manufacturing process becomes predictable, profitable, and stable.
Back in February, when Samsung started mass-producing HBM4 chips and shipping them to customers, the yield was reportedly under 60%, which meant it was not very profitable for the company.
The South Korean firm reached an 80% yield within six months with the combination of a turnkey system across its foundry, memory, and packaging divisions. The company now competes with HBM market leader SK Hynix in terms of development as well as production capacity.
The report claims that Samsung is targeting a 38% market share in the HBM space by the end of this year. It also expects revenue from HBM4 chips to account for over 60% of its HBM revenue in the second half of this year.
Analysts expect Samsung to slightly surpass SK Hynix in HBM volume market share in 2027.
Samsung is also said to be improving the reliability of HBM4E chip production. It aims to reach a 70% yield ahead of its launch sometime in the first half of 2027.
What is HBM and why is it important for Samsung?
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) is a specialized type of memory chip designed by stacking DRAM chips on top of each other to drastically increase data bandwidth and capacity, but designing and manufacturing it is extremely complicated. These chips are essential for AI accelerators made by companies like AMD, Google, and Nvidia.
Samsung is one of only three companies capable of making modern HBM chips, with the other two being Micron and SK Hynix.
Until last year, Samsung was struggling with issues in its HBM3 and HBM3E chips, which reportedly caused them to overheat and fail Nvidia's quality tests. However, the company worked hard on HBM4 chips and came back strong, reaching the industry's highest performance levels.
With the ongoing AI boom, there is a severe shortage of HBM chips worldwide, and the production capacity of all three HBM suppliers for 2027 is already fully booked.
If Samsung continues this stellar performance, it could earn at least $30 billion in profit from HBM chip sales in 2027.
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