SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said at the SK AI Summit in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, November 4, 2024 that SK Hynix is working with Nvidia to resolve supply bottlenecks.
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Shares of SK Hynix rose 6.5% on Monday after the company announced the launch of next-generation memory chips, with the parent company’s chairman saying the Korean semiconductor company had accelerated the supply of key products. NVIDIA.
Speaking at a company event on Monday, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recounted an anecdote in which he said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang asked him if SK Hynix could move a high-bandwidth memory called HBM4 ( HBM) wafer supply is six months ahead. Chey said SK Hynix’s CEO at the time said it was possible.
It’s unclear whether this will change SK Hynix’s production schedule, which starts in the second half of 2025 as previously announced.
High-bandwidth memory is a key component of Nvidia’s chips, which are used to train huge artificial intelligence models. Tech giants around the world have been snapping up Nvidia chips in an effort to produce the most powerful models and apps.
SK Hynix is a major supplier to Nvidia, and huge demand for the U.S. company’s products has helped the Korean company achieve rapid growth and record profits this year.
SK Hynix shares have risen about 36% this year.
On Monday, the company also announced a new product that helped support its stock price. SK Hynix said samples of the wafer (16-layer HBM) will be available to customers in early 2025.
HBM is a type of dynamic random access memory, called DRAM, in which dies are stacked vertically to save space and reduce power consumption. In theory, adding more layers to HBM would give it more ability to handle complex AI applications.
SK Hynix’s aggressive roadmap comes as its closest rival Samsung lags behind on HBM, trying to make a comeback and get its most advanced chips certified for use by Nvidia.
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