Samsung Electronics announced Friday that it has begun delivering samples of its newest high-bandwidth memory chips to clients, gaining a competitive advantage over rivals in providing updated versions of components essential for artificial intelligence data centers. The announcement caused the company’s stock to rise.
The technology giant from South Korea reported that its new 12-layer HBM4E chip delivers performance improvements of more than 20% compared to earlier HBM4 models.
According to Samsung, the chip incorporates its newest 1c DRAM process technology — sixth-generation, 10-nanometer-class DRAM — combined with Samsung’s 4-nanometer foundry logic base die.
This launch represents Samsung’s push to recover ground in the HBM marketplace after losing position to competitors like SK Hynix and Micron in providing cutting-edge artificial intelligence memory components, especially to Nvidia.
The development occurs just three months following Samsung’s February launch of HBM4 chip deliveries to clients, demonstrating the corporation’s commitment to enhancing its standing in the future AI memory sector through early distribution of its newest product samples.
In April, Samsung announced its intention to deliver initial HBM4E chip samples during the second quarter.
Samsung’s client base encompasses significant AI companies including AMD, Nvidia and Google, as well as others, amid growing demand for sophisticated memory components utilized in AI servers and processing units.
Stock prices for Samsung Electronics climbed up to 6.5% during morning sessions, outpacing the benchmark KOSPI’s 2.3% increase. SK Hynix shares gained 1.2% at 0207 GMT.
Market experts attributed the increases to Samsung’s recent HBM announcement and positive sentiment regarding its AI chip division prospects, following Anthropic’s designation of Samsung as a strategic infrastructure partner in its recent funding round.
Anthropic reported securing funding at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, identifying Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix as partners whose technologies serve crucial functions in supplying memory, storage and logic components.
Among the three companies, Samsung received specific recognition for its logic chip capabilities, heightening investor hopes that this partnership could eventually generate additional foundry contracts following Samsung’s $16.5 billion supply agreement with Tesla, announced last year.
“In the HBM market, early movers tend to secure the bulk of orders, so gaining market share in the initial stages is critical,” said Jeff Kim, head of research at KB Securities-Jefferies.
Kim observed that Samsung had joined the HBM3 and HBM3E markets behind competitors, which restricted the order volume it could obtain.
“But if Samsung successfully completes the qualification process for HBM4E, the HBM vendor structure, which has largely centred on SK Hynix and Micron, that could shift toward SK Hynix and Samsung, considering Samsung’s manufacturing capacity,” Kim added.
SK Hynix commanded the worldwide HBM market with a 57% share in the fourth quarter of 2025, with Samsung holding 22% and Micron at 21%, based on Counterpoint Research data.
Kim also suggested Samsung could gain advantages in foundry operations, as Taiwan’s TSMC anticipates having its advanced-node capacity completely reserved for upcoming years.
“That raises expectations that Samsung, as one of the few companies capable of producing advanced chips, could win more orders for advanced-node manufacturing,” he said.
