Samsung Electronics began shipping samples of its HBM4E high-bandwidth memory chip to major global customers on Thursday, becoming the first company to distribute the next-generation AI memory product.
The HBM4E delivers speeds of up to 16 Gbps and 3.6 TB/s of memory bandwidth, a more than 20% improvement over its predecessor
JUNG YEON-JE / Getty Images
Samsung Electronics began shipping samples of its HBM4E high-bandwidth memory chip to major global customers on Thursday, becoming the first company to distribute the next-generation AI memory product.
The 12-layer chip delivers a stable pin speed of 14 gigabits-per-second, with performance scalable to 16 Gbps, representing a more than 20% increase over Samsung's HBM4, the company said. Memory bandwidth reaches up to 3.6 terabytes-per-second per stack. Capacity comes in at 48 gigabytes, which Samsung said marks a greater than 30% jump from the previous generation; an 8-layer 32GB variant and a 16-layer 64GB variant are also in the works, contingent on what customers require. Samsung said it will begin mass production aligned with customer schedules following sample evaluation.
Investors reacted positively to the announcement, with Samsung shares climbing as much as 6.51% before settling at a gain of 3.67%, closing at 310,500 won.
On the manufacturing side, the chip is built using Samsung's 1c DRAM process — its sixth-generation 10nm-class technology — with a logic base die produced on a 4-nanometer node at Samsung Foundry, the company said. Advanced low-power design and optimized packaging improved energy efficiency by 16% and thermal resistance by more than 14% compared to the prior generation.
"Through our advanced manufacturing capabilities and preemptive infrastructure investments, we will continue to drive the growth of the global AI memory market," Sang Joon Hwang, executive vice president and head of memory development at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.
High-bandwidth memory chips are used in AI accelerators including Nvidia $NVDA's Rubin and Google $GOOGL's Ironwood Tensor Processing Unit, according to CNBC. Samsung's customers include AMD $AMD, Nvidia, and Google, according to Reuters.
The HBM4E shipment comes roughly three months after Samsung began distributing its HBM4 chips in February. Counterpoint Research data cited by Reuters put SK Hynix's share of the global HBM market at 57% for the fourth quarter of 2025, with Samsung at 22% and Micron $MU rounding out the top three at 21%. Analysts noted that Samsung's late entry into the HBM3 and HBM3E generations cost the company order volume it might otherwise have captured, Reuters reported.
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