February 18, 2025 – According to a report by TheElec, the head of Samsung’s chip division personally visited the headquarters of NVIDIA in the United States last week. The purpose of this visit was to showcase Samsung’s newly developed 1b DRAM chip sample, primarily intended for High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) applications.
Sources indicate that NVIDIA had requested improvements to Samsung’s 1b DRAM design last year, and the showcased sample reflected these requested modifications. It is unusual for the head of Samsung Device Solutions (DS) division to personally present samples to clients.
It’s worth noting that Samsung had initially planned to use 1b DRAM for HBM production last year but encountered yield and overheating issues. This DRAM belongs to the fifth-generation 10-nanometer class and is mainly intended for HBM3E. Due to these challenges, Samsung had considered switching to 1a DRAM, the predecessor of 1b DRAM, for HBM3E 8H and 12H production, and even skipping 1b DRAM altogether in favor of using 1c DRAM for HBM4. However, NVIDIA’s insistence on using 1b DRAM prompted Samsung to revisit its plans. The visit by Young Hyun Jun, Samsung’s Vice Chairman and head of the DS division, was likely aimed at securing NVIDIA’s HBM3E orders.
Currently, Samsung’s competitor, SK Hynix, is already supplying NVIDIA with HBM3E 12H produced using 1b DRAM, and Micron is also expected to start production soon for NVIDIA’s AI accelerators.
Last month, Samsung announced that preparations for its “improved” HBM3E were progressing smoothly, with plans to commence mass production and supply in the second quarter of this year. Young Hyun Jun, as the head of both the DS division and its memory business, and a DRAM expert, is believed to have led the design improvements of the 1b DRAM.
At the CES event in January, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that Samsung needed to redesign its HBM to meet NVIDIA’s qualification standards.
