Though previous rumors suggested that there might be a downward revision of its HBM capacity target due to delayed progress on 12-Hi HBM3e, Samsung’s officials have stated that it will enhance its semiconductor packaging facilities in South Chungcheong Province to increase the production of HBM, according to a report by the Korea Herald.

Samsung aims to complete the new facilities by December 2027, which will feature advanced packaging lines for HBM chips, the Korea Herald report indicates.

However, it is worth noting that the capacity is not built from scratch. According to the report, Samsung will repurpose an underutilized liquid crystal display plant, previously owned by Samsung Display, into a semiconductor fabrication facility. The plant is said to be located in Cheonan, approximately 85 kilometers south of Seoul.

According to the report, Samsung anticipates that the upgraded facilities in Cheonan will help the company regain its competitive edge in the global semiconductor market.

The current HBM leader, SK hynix, is reportedly investing in advanced chip packaging as well, as it aims to capture more demand for HBM in the AI boom.

According to a previous report by Bloomberg, Lee Kang-Wook, currently leading SK Hynix’s packaging research and development, stated that the company is investing over USD 1 billion in South Korea to expand and enhance the final steps of its chip manufacturing process.

On the other hand, Micron stated last year that in response to the growing demand in the AI market, it will continue to invest in advanced processes and packaging technologies to produce HBM products. Micron Taiwan is reportedly the only Micron facility globally with advanced packaging capabilities.

This August, Taiwanese panel maker AUO announced that it will sell three idled manufacturing facilities in Tainan, Southern Taiwan as Micron emerged as the buyer. Micron is also mulling HBM expansion in Malaysia and the U.S.

Read more

• [News] SK hynix and Samsung Reportedly Step up Focus on HBM4 and CXL amid Rising Chinese Competition
• [News] Samsung Reportedly Starts Developing Custom HBM4 for Big CSPs, Eyeing Mass Production by 2025

(Photo credit: Samsung)

According to a report from Liberty Times, citing the Reuters, on Monday (11th), South Korea’s ruling party proposed a special semiconductor bill to provide subsidies for chip manufacturers and remove the national cap on working hours, addressing potential risks stemming from Trump’s threats of tariffs and chip-related measures.

The bill would allow some employees involved in R&D to work longer hours, exempting them from the labor law’s 52-hour weekly work limit, as noted by the report.

The report indicated that as Asia’s fourth-largest economy, South Korea is highly dependent on trade, with the semiconductor industry playing a critical role. According to the Reuters report, chips accounted for 16% of South Korea’s total exports last year.

One of the bill’s sponsors, lawmaker Lee Chul-gyu, stated that China, Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. are all subsidizing manufacturers amid the semiconductor trade war between the U.S. and China, and this bill will help South Korean companies face these challenges, as indicated by the report from the Reuters.

Last week, according to the report, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol cautioned about the risks arising from Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Chinese imports, which could lead Chinese competitors to lower export prices and undermine Korean chip companies in international markets.

The report noted that the ruling party’s bill comes as chipmakers like Samsung Electronics face increasing competition from rivals in Taiwan, China, and other countries.

On the other hand, the report pointed out that the bill proposed by the ruling party still requires approval from the main opposition party to pass.

Samsung’s labor union has also voiced opposition, arguing that the company is using the law as an excuse for its “management failure,” as the report noted.

The report pointed out that, last month, Samsung issued an apology for its disappointing profits, acknowledging that it had fallen behind competitors TSMC and SK Hynix in capitalizing on the surging demand for AI chips.

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• [News] South Korea’s Labor Regulations May Weaken its Semiconductor Competitiveness
• [News] Samsung Reportedly Joins TSMC in Halting 7nm and Below AI Chip Supplies to China

(Photo credit: Samsung)

The U.S. has tightened restrictions on foundries supplying 7nm and below chips to Chinese clients. According to a report from Economic Daily News, following TSMC’s suspension of services to restricted Chinese clients, rumors suggest that South Korea’s Samsung is also affected by U.S. restrictions, preventing it from offering such foundry services to Chinese firms.

Samsung’s foundry division has reportedly notified Chinese clients about the restrictions, according to the report. However, Samsung has declined to comment on these rumors.

As for Intel, since it is closely aligned with the U.S., the company is also expected to comply with U.S. regulations, as the report mentioned. This would lead to a comprehensive blockade of China’s effort to develop advanced AI chips, signaling a new chapter in the U.S.-China semiconductor confrontation, potentially reshaping the global semiconductor landscape.

The report pointed out that currently, only three companies—TSMC, Samsung, and Intel—are capable of providing foundry services below the 7nm process. China’s leading foundry, SMIC, claims to have 7nm production capability, but it lacks the necessary economies of scale and efficiency.

Citing industry sources, the report suggests that Alibaba’s AI chip subsidiary, T-Head, could be the most heavily impacted by the restrictions, indicating that, following Huawei, Alibaba has now also come under scrutiny by the White House. Along with T-head, other Chinese AI chip companies, such as Bitmain and Cambricon, are also likely to be impacted.

Fully owned by Alibaba, T-Head has made rapid progress in next-generation chip development, with its “Yitian” series reaching sub-5nm technology, as the report mentioned. The company claims that its technology supports applications across diverse fields, including AI in automotive, gaming, and scientific research.

The report indicated that as China’s path to self-developed AI chips encounters setbacks, it may be forced to rely on downgraded versions of AI chips from U.S. companies like NVIDIA and AMD to comply with American restrictions. This development, as the report noted, could undermine Beijing’s hopes of using domestically developed AI chips to circumvent U.S. limitations.

(Photo credit: Samsung)

Read more

• [News] Four Key Takeaways on TSMC’s Reported Halt of 7nm and Below Chip Supplies to China
• [News] TSMC Reportedly Halts Shipments to Chinese Firm Sophgo After Chip Found in Huawei Processor

As Samsung has implied earlier that it plans to collaborate with TSMC on HBM4, the memory giant seems to take a key step forward. A report by South Korean media outlet Maeli Business Newspaper discloses that the memory giant has already begun developing “Custom HBM4,” a next-gen high-bandwidth memory tailored specifically for Microsoft and Meta.

Samsung aims to begin mass production of HBM4 promptly upon completing development by the end of 2025, the report suggests.

Industrial sources cited by the report state that Samsung is establishing a dedicated production line for HBM4, which is now in the “pilot production” phase, where small-scale, trial manufacturing takes place ahead of mass production.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, the report further notes that Samsung is actively working on HBM4 designed for Microsoft and Meta. Both tech heavyweights have their own AI chips, namely, Microsoft’s Maia 100 and Meta’s Artemis.

As major tech companies make strides in scaling up their own AI data centers, there is a strong demand to cut costs associated with chip purchases. Therefore, many design and utilize their own AI accelerators while also buying AI chips from NVIDIA and AMD, according to Maeli.

Samsung, with its memory division and an LSI division capable of designing computational chips, is ideally positioned as a top partner for these major tech companies, according to Maeli.

Though the specifics of the HBM4 product that Samsung will supply to these companies remain undisclosed, Samsung did reveal the general specifications in February, according to Maeli.

Its data transmission speed, or bandwidth, reportedly reaches 2 terabytes per second (TB), marking a 66% increase over HBM3E, while its capacity has risen 33% to 48 gigabytes (GB), up from 36GB.

The report explains that unlike previous memory products, HBM4 is also referred to as “Computer-in-Memory (CIM)” due to its advanced capabilities, which go beyond standard memory functions to include specialized operations aligned with customer requirements.

Up to HBM3, the focus is said to be mainly on managing heat generation and maximizing speed, according to a semiconductor industrial official cited by the report. With HBM4, however, the emphasis will shift toward integrating AI computation capabilities (NPU) and specific data processing functions (IP) to meet evolving needs, the report says.

Read more

• [News] SK hynix and Samsung Reportedly Step up Focus on HBM4 and CXL amid Rising Chinese Competition
• [News] SK hynix Reportedly to Tape-out HBM4 in October, Paving the Way for NVIDIA’s Rubin

(Photo credit: Samsung)

According to a report from TechNews, citing Korean media outlet The Elec, Apple was exploring two options for applying the color filter to the OLED panel intended for the more affordable Vision Pro device.

The report from The Elec indicates that this yet-to-be-named MR device from Apple will use a panel that is based on a glass board with white OLED deposited on it, topped by an RGB color filter to create various colors—a method known as W-OLED+CF. For resolution, Apple is thinking about 1,500ppi.

The report points out that since this device will use a glass board, it is not OLEDoS (OLED on silicon), different from the current Vision Pro that uses Sony’s OLEDoS technology with a resolution of 3,400ppi.

The report mentions that Apple is considering two approaches to apply the color filter
for this new device. The first approach is to directly form the color filter on the thin-film encapsulation (TFE) that covers the panel. The second, more standard approach, involves forming the color filter on a glass board and then combining it with another glass board with W-OLED deposited on it, making the W-OLED glass board the base and the color filter board the top.

Apple is leaning towards the first approach—forming the filter directly on TFE—as it would require only one glass board, making the MR device thinner, according to the report from The Elec.

However, the color filter formation of TFE demands a low-temperature process to avoid damaging the OLED, which makes it more challenging, as the report from The Elec mentions. Samsung currently uses this technique of directly forming the color filter on its foldable phones, which is known as color filter on encapsulation (CoE).

However, according to the report, Apple aims for a resolution of 1,500ppi, but the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 inner panel has a resolution of just 374ppi. To achieve such high resolution, additional technological costs will be involved.

The report indicates that Samsung remains the most likely supplier of W-OLED+CF panels for Apple’s new MR product.

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• [News] Foxconn Likely Wins Order for Apple’s Rumored Cheaper Vision Pro
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(Photo credit: Apple)