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Samsung Electronics starts world's first commercial shipment of HBM4

Published: 12 Feb. 2026, 16:22

The new Samsung HBM4 chip is shown in this photo released by Samsung Electronics on Feb. 12. [YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has begun the first commercial shipment of sixth-generation high bandwidth memory, or HBM4, becoming the first company in the world to commercialize the advanced chip which offers "ultimate performance" for AI computing.

The shipment, which arrived about a week earlier than expected, came amid Samsung's intensifying competition in the global HBM industry with its Korean rival, SK hynix, which is soon expected to follow suit amid soaring demand for memory chips from the AI industry.

Samsung said the shipment will allow the company to secure "an early leadership position in the HBM4 market," noting that its products boast a consistent processing speed of 11.7 gigabits per second (Gbps), exceeding the industry standard of 8 Gbps.

"HBM4's performance can be further enhanced up to 13 Gbps, effectively mitigating data bottlenecks that intensify as AI models continue to scale up," the company said in a release.

The Korean tech giant said its HBM4 products are optimized for data centers, noting that clients can maximize the performance of their GPUs while reducing the power consumption of their servers.

The chipmaker said it expects HBM sales to "more than triple" in 2026 from a year earlier, with the company seeking to expand its HBM4 production capacity.

"Following the successful introduction of HBM4 to the market, sampling for HBM4E is expected to begin in the second half of 2026, while custom HBM samples will start reaching customers in 2027, according to their respective specifications," the company added.

Yonhap