SK Hynix expects AI reminiscence market to develop 30% a yr to 2030

South Korea’s SK Hynix forecasts that the marketplace for a specialised type of reminiscence chip designed for synthetic intelligence will develop 30% a yr till 2030, a senior govt stated in an interview with Reuters.

The upbeat projection for international development in high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) to be used in AI brushes off concern over rising worth pressures in a sector that for many years has been handled like commodities resembling oil or coal.

“AI demand from the end user is pretty much, very firm and strong,” stated SK Hynix’s Choi Joon-yong, the top of HBM enterprise planning at SK Hynix.

The billions of {dollars} in AI capital spending that cloud computing firms resembling Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google are projecting will probably be revised upwards sooner or later, which might be “positive” for the HBM market, Choi stated.

The relationship between AI build-outs and HBM purchases is “very straightforward” and there’s a correlation between the 2, Choi stated. SK Hynix’s projections are conservative and embrace constraints resembling accessible power, he stated.

But the reminiscence enterprise is present process a big strategic change throughout this era as nicely. HBM – a kind of dynamic random entry reminiscence or DRAM normal first produced in 2013 – entails stacking chips vertically to avoid wasting house and cut back energy consumption, serving to to course of the massive volumes of knowledge generated by complicated AI functions.

SK Hynix expects this marketplace for customized HBM to develop to tens of billions of {dollars} by 2030, Choi stated.

Due to technological modifications in the best way SK Hynix and rivals resembling Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics construct next-generation HBM4, their merchandise embrace a customer-specific logic die, or “base die”, that helps handle the reminiscence.

That means it’s now not potential to simply change a rival’s reminiscence product with an almost equivalent chip or product.

Part of SK Hynix’s optimism for future HBM market development consists of the chance that prospects will need even additional customisation than what SK Hynix already does, Choi stated.

At the second it’s largely bigger prospects resembling Nvidia that obtain particular person customisation, whereas smaller purchasers get a conventional one-size-fits-all method.

“Each customer has different taste,” Choi stated, including that some need particular efficiency or energy traits.

SK Hynix is presently the primary HBM provider to Nvidia, though Samsung and Micron provide it with smaller volumes. Last week, Samsung cautioned throughout its earnings convention name that present technology HBM3E provide would probably outpace demand development within the close to time period, a shift that would weigh on costs.

“We are confident to provide, to make the right competitive product to the customers,” Choi stated.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday stated the United States would impose a tariff of about 100% on semiconductor chips imported from nations not producing in America or planning to take action.

Choi declined to touch upon the tariffs.

Trump advised reporters within the Oval Office the brand new tariff fee would apply to “all chips and semiconductors coming into the United States,” however wouldn’t apply to firms that had been already manufacturing within the United States or had made a dedication to take action.

Trump’s feedback weren’t a proper tariff announcement, and the president supplied no additional specifics.

South Korea’s prime commerce envoy Yeo Han-koo stated on Thursday that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix wouldn’t be topic to the 100% tariffs on chips in the event that they had been applied.

Samsung has invested in two chip fabrication vegetation in Austin and Taylor, Texas, and SK Hynix has introduced plans to construct a complicated chip packaging plant and a man-made intelligence analysis and growth facility in Indiana.

South Korea’s chip exports to the United States had been valued at $10.7 billion final yr, accounting for 7.5% of its complete chip exports.

Some HBM chips are exported to Taiwan for packaging, accounting for 18% of South Korea’s chip exports in 2024, a 127% enhance from the earlier yr.