TSMC and Samsung co-developing a bufferless HBM4 memory chip, its first partnership in AI

Samsung has announced it is partnering with TSMC on co-developing bufferless HBM4 memory chips for future AI chips at the SEMICON Taiwan 2024 forum on Thursday.

2

Samsung is the world's largest memory chipmaker, partnering with TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, with the South Korean and Taiwan semiconductor giants working together on bufferless HBM4 memory in order to strengthen their positions in the constantly-evoling AI chip market.

Dan Kochpatcharin, the head of Ecosystem and Alliance Management at TSMC, said during SEMICON Taiwan 2024 that the two companies were developing a bufferless HBM4 chip. Samsung makes its own HBM4, with TSMC forming a "triangular alliance" with SK hynix and NVIDIA on future HBM and AI designs. SK hynix is second to Samsung (and also native to South Korea) but this new development between Samsung + TSMC is very interesting.

Samsung is the world's largest memory chipmaker, but it's the second-largest semiconductor company only behind TSMC, and now it's partnering with the company on the future of AI memory: HBM4. During SEMICON Taiwan 2024, corporate president and head of Samsung's memory business, Lee Jung-bae, said that "to maximize the performance of AI chips, customized HBM is the best choice. We are working with other foundry players to offer more than 20 customized solutions".

• Read more: Samsung teases 16-layer 3D DRAM with VCT DRAM as a 'stepping stone' for future RAM
• Read more: NVIDIA, TSMC, SK hynix form 'triangular alliance' for next-gen AI GPUs and HBM4 memory
• Read more: Samsung's next-gen HBM4 to enter mass production by the end of 2025, ready for next-gen AI GPUs
• Read more: Samsung to manufacture logic dies for next-gen HBM4 AI memory using 4nm node
• Read more: Samsung reportedly ahead of TSMC with next-gen panel-level packaging semiconductor tech

HBM4 is a little different to HBM3 and HBM3E: the manufacturing process for HBM4 differs to previous-gen HBM designs, as the logic die -- acting as the brain of the HBM chip -- will be produced by foundry companies, versus memory manufacturers normally handling that. Samsung is manufacturing its own logic dies for its in-house HBM4 memory, using its in-house 4nm process node.

Samsung wants to offer a turnkey service: from DRAM production to logic die production, and advanced packaging, the South Korean giant c an do it all. But, Samsung is thinking of using TSMC's advanced technologies, as there are customers who prefer TMSC-produced logic dies, according to KED sources.