Samsung Electronics names new head of semiconductor business as AI chip race heats up – NBC 7 San Diego
- Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it has appointed a new head of its semiconductor business.
- The company said it seeks to “strengthen its competitiveness amid an uncertain global business environment.”
- Samsung is competing with SK Hynix to produce the most advanced memory chips on the market to ride the wave of AI.
Samsung Electronics named a new head of its semiconductor business on Tuesday as the company strives to lead the AI chip race.
Young Hyun Jun will replace Kyehyun Kyung, who will now head the future business division, which focuses on discovering new growth opportunities, much like the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
The company aims to “strengthen its competitiveness amid an uncertain global business environment,” Samsung Electronics said, adding that Jun has extensive experience leading the company’s memory and battery production divisions.
Samsung is in intense competition with SK Hynix to produce the most advanced memory chips on the market to ride the wave of AI. The memory chip market is currently dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron – the three largest suppliers in the world.
SK Hynix is a leader in the high-bandwidth memory space, having been the sole supplier of HBM3 chips to Nvidia, which is at the forefront of AI chips. Nvidia is also considering Samsung as a supplier.
“We expect competition in high-bandwidth memory to intensify in 2025. For the HBM3 generation, SK Hynix is Nvidia’s exclusive supplier, and we believe there were a few quarters of technology gaps between SK Hynix and Samsung,” Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, in a report earlier this month.
SK Hynix plans to begin mass production of its latest generation of high-bandwidth memory chips, the 12-layer HBM3E, in the third quarter, while Samsung Electronics aims to do the same in the second quarter, having been the first to industry to send samples of the latest chip.
“[This suggests] that Samsung is quickly filling the gap in the technology roadmap. As a result, we expect all three major vendors to be able to ship HBM3E to Nvidia, intensifying price competition,” said Ito.
