[News] Samsung Reportedly Bets on CXL Memory in the AI Race

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According to a report from Nikkei, Samsung Electronics, currently lagging behind SK hynix in the HBM market, is said to be betting on the next-generation CXL memory, with shipments expected to begin in the second half of this year, while anticipating the CXL memory to become the next rising star in AI.

CXL is a cache-coherent interconnect for memory expansion, which may maintain memory coherency between the CPU memory space and memory on attached devices, which allows resource sharing for higher performance.

The CXL module stacks DRAM layers and connects different semiconductor devices like GPUs and CPUs, expanding server memory capacity up to tenfold.

Choi Jang-seok, head of Samsung Electronics’ memory division, explained that CXL technology is comparable to merging wide roads, enabling the efficient transfer of large volumes of data.

As tech companies rush to develop AI models, existing data centers are gradually becoming unable to handle the enormous data processing demands.

As a result, companies are beginning to build larger-scale data centers, but this also significantly increases power consumption. On average, the energy required for a general AI to answer user queries is about ten times that of a traditional Google search.

Choi further highlighted that incorporating CXL technology allows for server expansion without the need for physical growth.

In 2021, Samsung became one of the first companies in the world to invest in the development of CXL. This June, Samsung announced that its CXL infrastructure had received certification from Red Hat.

Additionally, Samsung is a member of the CXL Consortium, which is composed of 15 tech companies, with Samsung being the only memory manufacturer among them. This positions Samsung to potentially gain an advantage in the CXL market.

While HBM remains the mainstream memory used in AI chipsets today, Choi Jang-seok anticipates that the CXL market will take off starting in 2027.

Since the surge in demand for NVIDIA’s AI chips, the HBM market has rapidly expanded. SK hynix, which was the first to develop HBM in 2013, has since secured the majority of NVIDIA’s orders, while Samsung has lagged in HBM technology.

Seeing Samsung’s bet on CXL, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won remarked that SK Hynix should not settle for the status quo and immediately start seriously considering the next generation of profit models.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)