Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
CES 2026 SK hynix unveils 16-high 48Gb HBM4
An image of SK hynix's booth at CES 2026, schedule for Tuesday through Friday (local time) in Las Vegas / Courtesy of SK hynix
By Lee Gyu-lee
SK hynix will unveil its next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) memory solutions at CES 2026 Tuesday, showcasing its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) product, a 16-high 48-gigabyte HBM4, for the first time in the world.
The latest memory chip is a successor to the 12‑high 36-gigabyte HBM4 that delivers a data rate of 11.7 gigabits per second. The chip development is on track to meet consumer timelines.
Sixteen-high HBM4 is widely viewed as a major technical achievement, as stacking 16 layers dramatically increases manufacturing difficulty compared with 12-high products. That is because 16-high chips require thinner spacing between DRAM dies, tighter control of wafer warpage and much more precise alignment and interconnect bonding. They also require more complex thermal management.
At its CES 2026 booth, the company also displayed a graphics processing unit (GPU) module equipped with 12-high 36-gigabyte HBM3E for Nvidia's latest AI server units to demonstrate how the memory operates within a real AI environment. The 36-gigabyte 12-high HBM3E is SK hynix's flagship product currently leading the global market.
“Under the theme ‘Innovative AI, Sustainable Tomorrow,’ the company plans to showcase a broad range of AI-optimized memory technologies,” the company said. “We will closely engage with global customers to create new value together in the AI era.”
SK hynix chip products displayed at CES 2026 / Courtesy of SK hynix
Along with HBMs, the company presented the small outline compression attached memory module 2 (SOCAMM2), a low-power memory module optimized for AI servers, along with a lineup of general-purpose memory products for AI workloads. The lineup includes low-power double data rate 6 (LPDDR6), which is a significantly improved version in data processing speed and power efficiency for on-device AI applications.
SK hynix also introduced a 2-terabit quadruple-level cell-based 321-layer NAND product optimized for ultrahigh‑capacity solid‑state drives, a segment seeing surging demand amid the expansion of AI data centers.
The product offers one of the highest storage densities currently available and delivers substantially improved performance and power efficiency over prior generations, making it ideal for power-sensitive AI data center environments, SK hynix said.