Samsung was in a spot of worry a few months ago, as its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips hadn't received Nvidia's certification for months. A few weeks ago, Samsung's HBM3 chips reportedly received Nvidia's certification for the Chinese market. However, even before the certification, Chinese firms had been reportedly stockpiling Samsung's HBM chips for months.

Chinese firms Baidu and Huawei have been reportedly stockpiling Samsung HBM chips for AI accelerators

According to a report from Reuters, Chinese tech giants Baidu and Huawei have been buying HBM chips from Samsung since earlier this year. The companies ramped up their purchases in anticipation of possible US curbs on exporting critical semiconductor chips to Chinese firms. The report claims that Chinese firms account for nearly 30% of Samsung's HBM chip sales globally.

It is reported that US authorities are planning to impose additional restrictions on chip shipments to China. The US already has curbs that restrict semiconductor chip firms from exporting 5nm (or more advanced) chips to be sold to Chinese firms. Newer export rules from the US may have specific parameters to restrict the export of HBM chips, which are crucial in AI processing.

Almost all AI accelerators, including AMD and Nvidia ones, are paired with HBM memory chips for faster data transfer. The only firms in the world that make HBM chips are Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. While HBM3E is the most advanced HBM chip right now, Chinese firms have been primarily buying HBM2E chips, which are two generations older.

Since Micron's and SK Hynix's HBM manufacturing capacities have been fully booked by US-based tech firms, Chinese firms are dependent on Samsung's HBM chips. Haawking and Tencent are also said to be among those who bought Samsung's HBM chips. If the US brings additional restrictions on the supply of HBM chips to the Chinese market, Samsung might face business issues.

Apparently, Chinese firm CXMT has been developing HBM2-grade memory chips that are three generations behind. By the time they start using homemade HBM2 chips, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix would have released HBM4 chips.

Image Credits: Samsung

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Samsung has unveiled the world's thinnest LPDDR5X DRAM chip, which is just 0.65mm thin, or as thin as a fingernail. This chip is made for high-end smartphones, which typically have an onboard neural processing unit (NPU) for on-device AI processing.

Samsung's newest LPDDR5X DRAM is just 0.65mm thin, making it the world's thinnest in its segment

The newest LPDDR5X DRAM chip from Samsung is the world's thinnest 12nm-class chip. It is available in 12GB and 16GB capacities. This chip is made using four stacked layers, each containing two LPDDR DRAM chips. Due to its thin profile, it offers more space in mobile devices, allowing for a better thermal design. According to Samsung, its new memory chip improves heat resistance by up to 21.2% compared to the previous-generation LPDDR5X chip.

Samsung optimized the printed circuit board (PCB), epoxy molding compound (EMC), and the back-lapping process to minimize the chip's height. The company plans to start supplying its new chip to smartphone manufacturers soon. It also announced that it will soon start making 24GB (6-layer) and 32GB (8-layer) LPDDR DRAM chips for future mobile devices.

YongCheol Bae, the Executive VP of Samsung's Memory Product Planning team, said, “Samsung’s LPDDR5X DRAM sets a new standard for high-performance on-device AI solutions, offering not only superior LPDDR performance but also advanced thermal management in an ultra-compact package. We are committed to continuous innovation through close collaboration with our customers, delivering solutions that meet the future needs of the low-power DRAM market.”

Image Credits: Samsung

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Over the last couple of years, Samsung has lowered the usage of Exynos chipsets in its phones and tablets. Take the Galaxy S23 series for example. The company used only the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset for the lineup. The brand is also not using Exynos SoCs in mid-range and low-end devices as much as it used to a few years ago.

While it is clear that the usage of Exynos chipsets is going down, we didn’t have any figures on the trend. Fortunately, that’s changing today. Canalys has just posted a report analyzing the global smartphone market by processor vendor, and it reveals some disappointing news about Exynos chipsets and Samsung Semiconductor.

According to the report, the shipment of smartphones with chipsets from Samsung Semiconductors was 13 million in Q4 2023, which is 48% less compared to that in Q4 2022. As a result, the company’s revenue from smartphone chipsets stood at USD 5 billion in the last quarter, which is 44% lower than what it was in Q4 2022.

Unlike the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung has used Exynos chipset for the Galaxy S24 lineup. So, the shipment of smartphones with Exynos chipsets should go up in this and the upcoming quarters, and with that the revenue of Samsung Semiconductors should also see a steep increase. It would be interesting to see future figures.

The report from Canalys also reveals that MediaTek processors powered the highest number of smartphones (117 million) in Q4 2023. Apple was the second-largest chipset provider with its SoCs powering 78 million smartphones and Qualcomm was the third-largest chipset supplier with its processors powering 69 million smartphones.

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