HBM4 Memory Chips Drive Demand as Samsung Reveals New Designs

Samsung Signals Strong Demand for HBM4 Memory

Samsung expects demand for its memory chips to stay high through 2027 as AI hyperscalers order memory at unprecedented levels, pushing prices higher. Song Jai-hyuk, the CTO of Samsung’s Device Solutions division, spoke at Semicon Korea and outlined the company’s memory plans and outlook.

The company said it plans to push HBM4 memory into mass production in the first quarter of this year, aiming to meet early demand from customers already evaluating the newer format. Feedback from corporate customers that have received some HBM4 shipments was described as 'very satisfactory' by the CTO.

Samsung noted that last year’s results showed strength in the HBM family. It reported booming sales in Q3 on the back of strong demand for the previous HBM3E format and that momentum continued into Q4. The executive said AI hyperscalers are among the customers driving this demand.

HBM4 Tech Advances: Hybrid Bonding, zHBM and PIM

Looking ahead, Samsung has developed a hybrid bonding technology for HBM that reduces the thermal resistance of 12H and 16H stacks by 20%. In tests, engineers observed about 11% lower temperature on the base die. It was not clear when hybrid-bonded dies will be available to consumers.

Another related technology is zHBM, which stacks dies in the Z-axis. This approach is expected to boost memory bandwidth about fourfold while reducing power consumption by about 25%.

Samsung is also pursuing custom HBM designs with some compute capabilities built into the memory itself, known as processing-in-memory or PIM. According to the CTO, the custom HBM design can increase performance about 2.8x while keeping power efficiency roughly the same.

• HBM4 memory planned for Q1 shipments
• Hybrid bonding lowers thermal resistance by 20% for 12H/16H stacks; tests show 11% lower base-die temperature
• zHBM stacks dies in Z-axis; 4x memory bandwidth; 25% lower power
• PIM-based custom HBM design yields about 2.8x performance with similar power efficiency

The CTO’s remarks underscore Samsung’s path toward higher memory capacity and compute within memory as AI workloads shape cloud infrastructure. Industry observers will monitor how quickly these technologies move from development to production and how demand dynamics influence pricing and supply.

Looking to the future, Samsung has developed a hybrid bonding technology for HBM. This reduces the thermal resistance of 12H and 16H stacks by 20%. In tests, Samsung observed 11% lower temperature on the base die. It’s not clear when hybrid-bonded dies will be available to consumers.

Another related technology is called zHBM, which stacks dies in the Z-axis. This approach will boost memory bandwidth 4x while reducing power consumption by 25%.