The market for the next-generation HBM3E, a high-performance semiconductor for artificial intelligence within the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) sector, is heating up. As Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron all gear up to mass-produce 5th generation HBM3E, the competition is expected to intensify.

The proposed merger between Japan’s Kioxia, a NAND flash Memory producer, and the American company Western Digital (WD) has been called off.

Kioxia and its U.S. counterpart Western Digital are reportedly on the verge of finalizing a merger agreement, aiming to create the world's largest producer of Memory chips.

According to industry sources on Oct. 17, Samsung Electronics is sending Shinebolt prototypes, a product of HBM3E, to client companies for quality approval tests. The prototype stacks 24 gigabit (Gb) chips in 8 layers, and it is reportedly soon to finish the development of a 36 gigabyte (GB) product with 12 layers.

According to industry sources on Oct. 17, SK hynix recently collaborated with the data processing platform company HazelCast to publish a white paper on the application of Compute Express Link (CXL) technology.

Samsung commercialized HBM for high-performance computing (HPC) in 2016 for the first time in the world.

With demonstrated in-system functionality at speeds up to 7,200 MT/s, Micron’s 1β DDR5 DRAM is now shipping to all data center and PC customers.

KIOXIA is now sampling its next-generation e-MMC devices, with mass production expected to start in the spring of 2024.

LPCAMM is set to be tested using next-generation systems with major customers this year, and commercialization is planned for 2024.

The majority of this inventory consists of the older Double Data Rate (DDR) 4, making it challenging for both companies to quickly reduce their stockpiles.

Kioxia’s lenders plan to submit a commitment letter in October for the refinancing of ￥2 trillion ($14 billion) in loans to help fund the merger with Western Digital’s flash Memory business that’s still under discussion, according to people familiar with the matter.

SK hynix also demonstrated Meta's generative AI Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT) 13B model on a server system equipped with the AiMX prototype. The AiMX system featuring GDDR6-AiM chips reduces data processing time by more than 10 times compared to systems with GPUs, while consuming one-fifth the power.

Some companies have reduced as much as over 50% of their material supply for NAND production compared to last year, sources said.

Amid the global restructuring of the semiconductor supply chain, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are likely to be the most affected by decisions related to U.S. licenses.

ASML's CEO, Peter Wennink, has announced that his team will be shipping out the first pilot tool (a high-NA EUV system) in its next product line before the end of this year.