With the chip war between the two great powers heating up, the U.S. is reportedly mulling new measures to limit China’s access to AI memory. As the restrictions might be imposed as early as late August, rumor has it that Chinese tech giants like Huawei and Baidu, along with other startups, are stockpiling high bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors from Samsung Electronics, according to the latest report by Reuters.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report notes that these companies have increased their purchases of AI-capable semiconductors since early this year. One source states that in accordance with this trend, China contributed to around 30% of Samsung’s HBM revenue in 1H24.

Regarding the details of the potential restrictions, sources cited by Reuters said that the U.S. authority is anticipated to establish guidelines for restricting access to HBM chips. While the U.S. Department of Commerce declined to comment, it did state last week that the government is continually evaluating the evolving threat landscape and updating export controls.

The Big Three in the memory sector, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, are all working on their 4^th generation (HBM3) and 5^th generation (HBM3e) products, while closely cooperating with AI giants such as NVIDIA and AMD in developing AI accelerators.

Reuters notes that the surging HBM demand from China recently has primarily focused on HBM2e, which is two generations behind HBM3e. However, as the capacities of other manufacturers are already fully booked by other American AI companies, China has turned to Samsung for its HBM demand.

Sources cited by Reuters also indicate that a wide range of businesses, from satellite manufacturers to tech firms like Tencent, have been purchasing these HBM chips. Meanwhile, Huawei has been using Samsung HBM2e to produce its advanced Ascend AI chip, according to one of the sources. It is also reported that Chinese memory giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has started mass production of HBM2.

Samsung and SK hynix declined to comment, neither did Micron, Baidu, Huawei and Tencent respond to requests for comment, Reuters notes.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)

According to a report from Tom’s Hardware citing industry sources, it’s indicated that Chinese memory giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has started mass production of HBM2. If confirmed, this is approximately two years ahead of the expected timeline, although the yield rate for HBM2 is still uncertain.

Earlier, Nikkei once reported that CXMT had begun procuring equipment necessary for HBM production, estimating it would take one to two years to achieve mass production. Currently, CXMT has ordered equipment from suppliers in the U.S. and Japan, with American companies Applied Materials and Lam Research having received export licenses.

Reportedly, HBM2 has a per-pin data transfer rate of approximately 2 GT/s to 3.2 GT/s. Producing HBM2 does not require the latest lithography techniques but does demand enough manufacturing capacity.

The process involves using through-silicon vias (TSV) to vertically connect memory components, which is rather complex. However, packaging the HBM KGSD (known good stack die) modules is still less intricate than manufacturing traditional DRAM devices using a 10nm process.

CXMT’s DRAM technology is said to be lagging behind that of Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix. These three companies have already started mass production of HBM3 and HBM3e and are preparing to advance to HBM4 in the coming years.

There also are reports indicating that Huawei, the Chinese tech giant subject to US sanctions, looks to collaborate with other local companies to produce HBM2 by 2026. Per a previous report from The Information, a group led by Huawei aimed at producing HBM includes Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit.

Moreover, since Huawei’s Ascend 910 series processors use HBM2, it has made HBM2 a crucial technology for advanced AI and HPC processors in China. Therefore, local manufacturing of HBM2 is a significant milestone for the country.

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(Photo credit: CXMT)