SK Hynix shares jumped over 9% on Thursday morning after the company announced the commencement of mass production of a 12-layer high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip. This new product, known as HBM3E, has a capacity of 36GB, making it the largest existing HBM2 chip available. The company aims to deliver these advanced memory chips to customers, including Nvidia Corp., by the end of the year.
This announcement follows the company’s earlier success in March when it delivered the first 8-layer HBM3E product.
SK Hynix’s new 12-layer HBM3E chip has a capacity of 36 gigabytes, a 50% increase from the company’s previous eight-layer version while maintaining the same thickness.
As the only manufacturer to develop and supply the entire HBM lineup from HBM1 to HBM3E, SK Hynix aims to continue its leadership in the AI memory market. The 12-layer HBM3E product meets the highest global standards for speed, capacity, and stability, with memory operations accelerated to 9.6 Gbps, the fastest available today. This performance means that a single GPU with four HBM3E products can process 70 billion parameters 35 times per second when running the Large Language Model (LLM) ‘Llama 3 70B.’
SK Hynix stacked 12 layers of 3GB DRAM chips to achieve the increased capacity, making each chip 40% thinner than its predecessor. The company utilized TSV technology to vertically stack the chips and implemented its proprietary Advanced MR-MUF process to resolve structural issues associated with thinner chips. This innovation allows for 10% better heat dissipation than earlier models, enhancing the product’s stability and reliability.
Launching the 12-layer HBM3E chip helps SK Hynix ahead of competitors like Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology. Following the successful supply of 8-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia in March, the company’s new offering is expected to dominate the HBM market, with reports indicating that Nvidia’s upcoming product lineups will exclusively feature these chips.
As demand for HBM chips surges with the rise of generative AI applications, exemplified by models like ChatGPT, SK Hynix’s advancements solidify its status as a leading innovator.
“SK Hynix has once again broken through technological limits, demonstrating our industry leadership in AI memory,” said Justin Kim, President (Head of AI Infra) at SK Hynix. “We will continue our position as the No.1 global AI memory provider as we steadily prepare next-generation memory products to overcome the challenges of the AI era.”
Following SK Hynix’s announcement and Micron’s positive forecasts, Asian chip stocks experienced a significant rally on Thursday morning. Notable gains included a 7% increase for Tokyo Electron and a 5% jump for Advantest, while Samsung Electronics, the largest memory chipmaker in the world, saw its shares rise by over 3%.
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