With the rising demand in the memory market and Chinese memory companies actively preparing for competition, a report from TechNews indicates that Zhou Meisheng, formerly the assistant to SMIC’s co-CEO Liang Mengsong, has joined ChangXin Memory Technology (CXMT) as the head of the Technical Research and Development Center, attracting attention.

Zhou Meisheng has previously served as the CTO of Lam Research in China, a global research and development equipment technology company. Before that, she held positions in various semiconductor companies, including Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore), UMC, and GlobalFoundries.

Starting in 2017, she served as the Executive Vice President of R&D at SMIC, directly reporting to co-CEO Liang Mengsong. She played a crucial role as Liang Mengsong’s key assistant in driving SMIC’s advanced process initiatives. In 2022, Zhou Meisheng retired, resigning from all positions at SMIC, sparking speculation.

The technology of CXMT continues to make breakthroughs, and by the end of 2023, the official website of CXMT announced the development of China’s first LPDDR5 DRAM chip. They introduced a series of LPDDR5 products, including 12GB LPDDR5, 12GB LPDDR5 with POP packaging, and 6GB LPDDR5 with DSC packaging.

LPDDR5 represents the fifth generation of low-power DRAM, and compared to the previous LPDDR4X, the new LPDDR4X has a 50% increase in capacity and speed, reaching 12GB capacity, a data transfer rate of 6,400Mbps, and a 30% reduction in power consumption.

In fact, CXMT’s main competitor Samsung announced the mass production of 12GB LPDDR5 mobile DRAM in July 2019, while Micron supplied LPDDR5 DRAM with capacities of 6GB, 8GB, and 12GB in February 2020. SK Hynix, on the other hand, announced the mass production of 18GB LPDDR5 mobile DRAM in August 2021. Therefore, considering the timeline, there’s an approximate four-year technology gap between CXMT and other global giants.

As for the DRAM market, it currently remains highly concentrated, dominated by key players such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, collectively holding over 96% of the entire market share.

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(Photo credit: CXMT)

DRAM prices have risen for three consecutive months, a trend attributed to Chinese clients accepting the price hike requests from memory manufacturers, as reported by Nikkei on February 16th.

As per data cited by Nikkei, the wholesale price (transaction price) of the benchmark product DDR4 8Gb was around USD 1.85 each in January 2024, marking a 9% increase from the previous month (December 2023). The price of the smaller 4Gb product was around USD 1.40 each, representing an 8% increase from the previous month. The aforementioned prices have been rising for the third consecutive month.

Reportedly, the price negotiation occurred before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, with Chinese clients increasing their purchasing volume before the break.

On the other hand, per TrendForce, since the fourth quarter of last year through the first quarter of this year, contract prices for DRAM products have seen continuous increases. For the mainstream product DDR4 8Gb, the contract price in January was USD 1.80.

The estimated increase for the first quarter is between 10% to 15%, and it is anticipated that there will be an additional increase of at least close to 10% by the end of the first quarter.

The report from Nikkei further addresses that 2024 is expected to enter the early stages of the PC replacement cycle, leading to increased demand for DRAM. According to sources cited in the report, besides Chinese clients, major PC manufacturers are also accepting price hikes.

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• [News] Samsung Reportedly Adjusts DRAM and NAND Flash Capacity to Boost Prices

(Photo credit: Samsung)

During the “SEMICON Korea 2024” event held recently in Seoul, Chun-hwan Kim, Vice President of global memory giant SK hynix, revealed that the company’s HBM3e has entered mass production, with plans to commence large-scale production of HBM4 in 2026.

According to a report from Business Korea, Chun-hwan Kim stated that SK hynix’s HBM3e memory is currently in mass production, with plans to initiate mass production of HBM4 in 2026.

He noted that with the advent of the AI computing era, generative AI is rapidly advancing, and the market is expected to grow at a rate of 35% annually. The rapid growth of the generative AI market requires a significant number of higher-performance AI chips to support it, further driving the demand for higher-bandwidth memory.

He further commented that the semiconductor industry would face intense survival competition this year to meet the increasing demand and customer needs for memory.

Kim also projected that the HBM market would grow by 40% by 2025, with SK hynix already strategically positioning itself in the market and planning to commence production of HBM4 in 2026.

Meanwhile, previous reports have also indicated that SK hynix expected to establish an advanced packaging facility in the state of Indiana, USA, to meet the demands of American companies, including NVIDIA.

Driven by the wave of AI advancement and demand from China, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea recently announced that South Korea’s semiconductor product exports experienced a rebound in 2024. In January, exports reached approximately USD 9.4 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 56.2% and the largest growth in 73 months.

TrendForce has previously reported the progress of HBM3e, as outlined in the timeline below, which shows that SK hynix already provided its 8hi (24GB) samples to NVIDIA in mid-August.

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(Photo credit: SK hynix)

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, South Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix is reportedly planning to establish a packaging facility in Indiana, USA. This move is expected to significantly advance the US government’s efforts to bring more artificial intelligence (AI) chip supply chains into the country.

SK Hynix’s new packaging facility will specialize in stacking standard dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips to create high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. These chips will then be integrated with NVIDIA’s GPUs for training systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Per one source close to SK Hynix cited by the report, the increasing demand for HBM from American customers and the necessity of close collaboration with chip designers have deemed the establishment of advanced packaging facilities in the US essential.

Regarding this, SK Hynix reportedly responded, “Our official position is that we are currently considering a possible investment in the US but haven’t made a final decision yet.”

The report quoted Kim Yang-paeng, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, as saying, “If SK Hynix establishes an advanced HBM memory packaging facility in the United States, along with TSMC’s factory in Arizona, this means Nvidia can ultimately produce GPUs in the United States.”

Previously, the United States was reported to announce substantial chip subsidies by the end of March. The aim is to pave the way for chip manufacturers like TSMC, Samsung, and Intel by providing them with billions of dollars to accelerate the expansion of domestic chip production.

These subsidies are a core component of the US 2022 “CHIPS and Science Act,” which allocates a budget of USD 39 billion to directly subsidize and revitalize American manufacturing.

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(Photo credit: SK Hynix)

Samsung’s latest financial report reveals that the fourth-quarter shipments of DRAM and NAND Flash in 2023 exceeded previous expectations, reflecting an improvement in market demand. Samsung will continue selectively adjusting the production capacity of specific DRAM and NAND Flash products to boost prices.

Samsung Electronics’ memory business is expected to return to profit in the first quarter of 2024, signaling a recovery in the memory industry. Commercial Times reports that due to inventory improvements, Samsung’s utilization rate of DRAM is projected to increase from 70% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 81% in the first quarter of 2024, and further rise to 89% in the second quarter.

According to industry sources cited in the Commercial Times’ report, Samsung’s fourth-quarter shipments of DRAM and NAND Flash in 2023 exceeded previous expectations. This was primarily attributed to Samsung’s memory experiencing a smaller price increase compared to its competitors, thereby accelerating the pace of inventory clearance, particularly in the case of DRAM, where improvements were more significant.

Samsung is expected to continue selectively adjusting the production of DRAM and NAND Flash products. As the first quarter is typically a slow season for the industry, Samsung anticipates a sequential decline in DRAM and NAND Flash shipments in the first quarter of 2024. However, prices are expected to continue rising.

Due to the destocking of Samsung’s DRAM for eight to ten weeks, it is expected to return to normal level by the end of the 1st quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, NAND Flash inventory is projected to normal level within the first half of 2024.

At the same time, Samsung plans to commence production of HBM3e 24GB products in the first half of 2024, with HBM3e 36GB products slated for production in the second half of the year, with progress ahead of schedule. Additionally, the development of the next-generation HBM4 is currently underway, with samples expected to be released in 2025 and mass production in 2026.

As per sources cited by the Commercial Times, reportedly, regarding HBM3 and HBM3e, HBM3 used in AI servers is still exclusively supplied by SK Hynix, with the highest yield in backend packaging, followed by Micron. Meanwhile, the report also indicates that HBM3e is expected to begin mass production in the first quarter of 2024. Micron’s outsourcing of backend TSV and stacking to TSMC has accelerated the product’s production speed.

As for the higher-spec HBM4, TrendForce expects its potential launch in 2026. With the push for higher computational performance, HBM4 is set to expand from the current 12-layer (12hi) to 16-layer (16hi) stacks, spurring demand for new hybrid bonding techniques. HBM4 12hi products are set for a 2026 launch, with 16hi models following in 2027.

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• [News] Samsung and Micron Rumored to Increase DRAM Prices by 15% to 20% in the First Quarter

(Photo credit: Samsung)