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Google joins Samsung Electronics' top five customer list for first time

Published: 11 Mar. 2026, 17:07

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Samsung Electronics' sixth-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM4) chip that has begun being to the company's key customers since February [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Google emerged as one of Samsung Electronics’ top five customers for the first time last year, underscoring how the global buildout of AI infrastructure is increasingly reliant on advanced memory chips.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, made the list for the first time on an annual basis, joining Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Hong Kong’s Techtronic Industries and Supreme Electronics, according to its business report released Tuesday.

Together, the five companies accounted for 15 percent of Samsung’s total revenue of 333.6 trillion won ($228 billion) in 2025.

While the report did not specify the products supplied, industry observers believe the purchases are likely related to Samsung’s memory chips used in AI data centers, including high bandwidth memory (HBM) and Double Data Rate 5 Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (DDR5 SDRAM), which support Google’s Tensor Processing Unit chips.

Samsung Electronics' sixth-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM4) chip that has begun being to the company's key customers since February [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Alphabet has likely become a key customer amid a surge in demand for server memory chips as U.S. Big Tech accelerates investment in AI infrastructure. More of such firms could appear on Samsung’s key customer list in the future as spending on AI data centers continues to rise. U.S. hyperscalers — Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta — plan to spend $650 billion this year in building AI data centers, a trend that is expected to further drive demand for high-performance memory.

Kim Jae-june, vice president of memory business at Samsung Electronics, noted a sharp increase in memory demand from AI-related hyperscalers in the United States and China, during a conference call in January.

“For the foreseeable future, supply is expected to remain significantly constrained relative to demand across memory products, including HBM, DRAM and NAND,” he said, adding that the company’s HBM capacity for 2026 has already been fully booked and that the company expects HBM-related revenue to more than triple year on year.

“Major customers have expressed a desire to finalize supply agreements early for volumes in 2027 and beyond,” he said.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]