With the rapid growth of the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) market focused on specific AI service performance, companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta are becoming the “giants” in the HBM market.
Previously, HBM supply was mainly concentrated among AI semiconductor companies like NVIDIA and AMD. As supply sources diversify, competition among memory semiconductor manufacturers producing HBM, such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, is expected to intensify.
It has been reported that companies like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron are expanding their supply of HBM products to ASIC design companies.
Last month, Micron mentioned that “ASIC platform” companies are among the four major customers for bulk HBM shipments alongside NVIDIA and AMD.
This reflects Micron’s confidence in the growing number of ASIC customers.
As the demand for custom semiconductors for AI models operated by companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google surges, the ASIC market is also rapidly expanding.
This is because products from NVIDIA and AMD, as general-purpose AI semiconductor manufacturers, are expensive, and their performance efficiency relative to power consumption is not high for running AI models.
Industry predictions suggest that next year, ASIC shipments will exceed NVIDIA’s AI semiconductor supply.
J.P. Morgan predicts that the global AI ASIC market size will reach approximately $30 billion this year, with an annual growth rate exceeding 30%.
The rapid development of ASIC companies is also prompting memory semiconductor companies that produce HBM integrated with ASIC chips to expand their supply.
Reportedly, HBM market leader SK Hynix is supplying HBM in large quantities for ASIC chips to companies like Broadcom, Amazon, and Google.
It is also reported that Samsung Electronics is supplying HBM3E to companies like Broadcom.
Currently, the supply of ASICs in the entire HBM market is still around 10%, but the previously concentrated supply among NVIDIA and AMD is indeed diversifying rapidly.
Analysts believe that as HBM4 (the sixth generation of HBM) becomes mainstream, competition will become even more intense.
HBM4 allows for the production of “custom HBM” in shapes required by customers.
HBM4 can be designed according to the performance required by customers as the “logic chip” that serves as the “brain” of HBM.
This structure allows HBM to be supplied in a form optimized for specific applications designed with ASIC.
Starting next year, as the market share of ASIC companies increases, HBM customers are expected to diversify.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also plan to make comprehensive facility investments in the HBM4 market.
Samsung Electronics will install facilities in the P4 area of Pyeongtaek to prepare for mass production of DRAM equipped with HBM4, while SK Hynix will begin mass production at its M15X factory in Cheongju in the second half of this year.
Micron has also supplied 12-layer HBM4 prototypes to major customers this month and has begun validating chip quality.
Unlike general DRAM, the supply of HBM requires confirmation of pre-orders about a year in advance, so samples will be supplied to ASIC companies within the year, and full-scale mass production negotiations will begin.