Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Samsung will achieve HBM chip supply goal, but needs new design, says Nvidia CEO
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a press Q&A session at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Tuesday (local time). Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Jensen Huang credits Samsung, SK hynix as key memory suppliers
LAS VEGAS — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed optimism, Tuesday (local time), about Samsung Electronics’ efforts to supply its most advanced high-bandwidth HBM memory chip to his company. However, Huang stressed the need for the Korean chipmaker to "engineer a new design."
During a press Q&A session on the sidelines of CES 2025, the artificial intelligence (AI) guru said Samsung is “working on” Nvidia’s qualification tests for HBM3e and there is “no question they will succeed.”
“I have confidence that Samsung will succeed with HBM. I have confidence like tomorrow is Wednesday,” Huang said.
The remarks were made in response to a question about why he chose to highlight Micron’s G7 memory chip, which is used in Nvidia’s new RTX 50 series graphics cards, unveiled during his CES keynote speech. The RTX 50 series is powered by Micron's Blackwell-based AI technologies, and following Huang’s comments, the U.S. chipmaker's stock saw a significant rise.
“Remember, Samsung created HBM,” he said. “Originally, the very first HBM memory that Nvidia has ever used was from Samsung.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a keynote presentation at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Monday (local time). UPI-Yonhap
Samsung Electronics has been struggling to get its HBM3e chips to pass qualification tests for Nvidia’s AI processors, while its rival, SK hynix, has become the dominant supplier, providing 12-layer HBM3e chips to Nvidia.
In October, Samsung said in an earnings conference call that it has achieved “meaningful progress” in meeting qualification requirements for a “major customer,” assumed to be Nvidia. But the chipmaker has yet to receive an official verification from Nvidia for its eight-layer and 12-layer HBM3e chips.
The challenges surrounding HBM have raised concerns about Samsung’s competitiveness as the world’s largest memory chipmaker. As HBM continues to account for only a small share of Samsung’s chipmaking business, a decline in the traditional DRAM market has hurt the company’s overall earnings.
Against this backdrop, Huang expressed confidence that Samsung will recover and said that Nvidia's testing of its HBM3e chips will be completed soon. However, he emphasized that the company needs to develop a new design.
“Korea is very impatient, which is a good thing,” Huang said when asked about the delays in Samsung’s chip tests. “But they have to engineer a new one, new design. But they can do it. They are working very fast and very committed to do it.”
So far, industry observers have speculated that the delay in qualifying Samsung chips is due to a lack of optimization with Nvidia’s chip specifications, rather than an issue with the chip quality itself. However, Huang’s comments suggest that further delays in Samsung’s bid to supply Nvidia could occur unless there is a fundamental change in the memory chip design.
Huang also noted that Samsung and SK hynix are two of Nvidia’s largest suppliers, praising them as “excellent memory companies” which will “continue to succeed” given the high demand for memory chips in Blackwell architecture. During his keynote speech, Huang showcased the GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which is powered by multiple HBM chips.
After the Q&A session, Huang mentioned that he will meet SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won during CES, but did not reveal any further details about the meeting.