Samsung has reportedly failed to pass specific stages of HBM3E memory verification standards from NVIDIA, which is surely going to cause a headache for the South Korean memory giant.
SK hynix has been pumping out HBM3 and now HBM3E while still preparing not just the next-generation HBM4 memory, but even HBM4E memory... while South Korean HBM rival, Samsung, can't get its act together with HBM3 memory for NVIDIA according to Korean news outlet AlphaBiz.
Samsung has reportedly failed qualification tests for its HBM3 8-layer memory, which is a serious situation to be in considering how bleeding-edge HBM is, and how Samsung has been acting in an emergency-style manner to get its HBM business flourishing... and now this gigantic roadblock, as NVIDIA prepares its beefed-up Hopper H200 AI GPU, and next-generation Blackwell B100, B200, and GB200 AI GPUs which all use HBM3E memory.
In the report, AlphaBiz says that some sources cite that Samsung's HBM3E memory is categorized as "defective," while other sources say that failing verification tests is only because SK hynix has set the bar for HBM3E so high by using different manufacturing techniques, that are different to Samsung.
Other rumors suggest that TSMC is reluctant to incorporate Samsung as an HBM partner, while collaborating on next-generation HBM4 and HBM4E with SK hynix.
