Samsung plays catch-up, races to reclaim AI memory chip dominance with accelerated HBM timeline

Samsung‘s push to reclaim leadership in AI memory chips comes at a critical juncture in the semiconductor industry, where high-bandwidth memory has become essential infrastructure for artificial intelligence applications. With growing competition in this lucrative market segment, Samsung’s aggressive timeline for introducing next-generation HBM technology signals the company’s determination to reassert its traditional dominance after falling behind competitors in capitalizing on the AI computing boom.

The big picture: Samsung Electronics plans to strengthen its position in the high-bandwidth memory chip market this year, responding to shareholder criticism over lost opportunities in AI-related semiconductor business.

Key details: Jun Young-hyun, who leads Samsung’s chip business and was just appointed co-CEO, announced an accelerated rollout schedule for advanced memory products.

• The company aims to supply enhanced 12-layer HBM3E chips as early as the second quarter of 2025.
• Samsung also plans to produce cutting-edge HBM4 chips in the second half of the year.

Why this matters: High-bandwidth memory has become one of the most valuable components in the AI hardware ecosystem, with demand surging as companies build out infrastructure for training and deploying large language models.

• Samsung’s aggressive timeline suggests an urgent strategy to recapture market share in this highly profitable segment.
• The announcement came during Samsung’s annual shareholder meeting, highlighting the pressure from investors to capitalize on AI-driven opportunities.

Behind the numbers: Samsung’s leadership restructuring, with Jun Young-hyun’s promotion to co-CEO, indicates the company is prioritizing its semiconductor division as AI continues driving growth in the chip industry.