Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chip maker, faced the worst period in its history last year. It faced losses due to a slump in the memory segment and lower memory chip prices. It also faced difficulties in selling its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia, the biggest AI firm. However, its worst days are over, and its HBM sales are rising at a crucial time.
Samsung’s HBM memory chip sales rose 50% in Q2 2024
It is being reported that Samsung’s HBM sales increased by more than 50% in the second quarter of this year. Earlier today, the company posted its earnings for Q2 2024, and it managed to achieve an operating profit of over KRW 10 trillion (~$7.2 billion) for the first time in the past seven quarters. These results are due to higher memory chip (DDR, HBM, and SSD) sales during the quarter.
Kim Jae-joon, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, said, “The memory market continued to be strong in the second quarter, fueled by strong demand for generative AI. HBM sales increased by more than 50 percent on-quarter,” during the company’s Q2 2024 earnings call.
He also said that Samsung will start the mass production of HBM3E in the third quarter of this year, indicating that an earlier report about those chips getting Nvidia’s certification by November 2024 was closer to reality. The South Korean firm recently got Nvidia’s certification for its HBM3 chips, but those chips have only been certified for AI chips that are limited to the Chinese market.
Samsung is already working on its sixth-generation HBM chips, HBM4, and those chips could be ready for mass production by the first half of next year. Its rivals Micron and SK Hynix are also expected to start production of HBM4 chips by that time.
For the second quarter of 2024, Samsung posted revenue of KRW 28.6 trillion (~$20.8 billion) and an operating profit of KRW 6.45 trillion (~$4.7 billion). The company’s chip business, Samsung Device Solutions, recovered from losses in Q2 2024 after five consecutive quarters.
