Hynix's advancement and Samsung's fall, which were viewed as the second-largest

Hynix's advancement and Samsung's fall, which were viewed as the second-largest semiconductor market, seem to be starting

Hynix is exclusively supplying NVIDIA in the HBM (high-bandwidth memory) part, and Samsung is widening the gap beyond its ability to catch up.

Why did this happen?

Let's go back in time.

In 2013, Nintendo commissioned a Korean semiconductor company to develop high-band memory suitable for gaming, and SK Hynix developed the world's first HBM.

However, Samsung Electronics bet on the server DRAM market rather than the HBM, which is expensive, difficult to make, and whose market is still unclear, and Lee Jae-yong dismantled the HBM research team that he created during Lee Kun-hee's time in 2019 after being sure of the growth of the server market.

Meanwhile, the HBM market has been gradually created, and as the AI market opens in 2023, Hynix is making HBMs by taking advance payments. As a result, Samsung has belatedly entered the HBM market and is knocking on the door by supplying samples to Nvidia, but is losing ground to Micron, which is considered the third-largest player in the world.

Although Samsung is a traditional powerhouse in the DRAM market, HBM with multiple layers of DRAM requires additional technology. Samsung has yet to properly implement the technology difficulty of HBM, which enables data transmission channels by drilling thousands of tiny holes between DRAMs.

As demand explodes more than supply, HBM prices are going through the roof, but Samsung has not yet produced a yield, so it is only making prototypes and not mass-producing them.

Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 memory chip maker for 31 years, is falling behind even the third place in the HBM market using memory semiconductors, failing to even give out its business card.

The HBM market, which had turned a blind eye to the spread of the server market because it was difficult to make and the market was small, is holding back the No. 1 Samsung and making an interception.

It would be too painful for Lee Jae-yong's Samsung to misjudge the market by believing in the position of the DRAM powerhouse.