Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Samsung) has stated that it has begun mass production of its industry-leading HBM4 and has shipped commercial products to customers.
What is an HBM4?
HBM4 (High Bandwidth Memory 4) is the fourth generation of high-speed, 3D-stacked DRAM, featuring a 2048-bit wide interface, which is double that of HBM3E. Designed for AI, high-performance computing, and data centres, it delivers superior performance, lower latency, and increased capacity (up to 48 GB per stack using 16 stacked dies), primarily to eliminate memory bottlenecks.
DRAM Process
By proactively leveraging its most advanced 6th-generation 10 nanometer (nm)-class DRAM process (1c), Samsung has managed to achieve stable yields and industry-leading performance from the outset of mass production.
What is a DRAM Process?
A DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) process is a semiconductor manufacturing method used to fabricate high-density, volatile memory chips, where each cell consists of a single transistor and a tiny capacitor.
Sang Joon Hwang, Executive Vice President and Head of Memory Development at Samsung Electronics, has commented:
“Instead of taking the conventional path of utilizing existing proven designs, Samsung took the leap and adopted the most advanced nodes like the 1c DRAM and 4nm logic process for HBM4. By leveraging our process competitiveness and design optimization, we are able to secure substantial performance headroom, enabling us to satisfy our customers’ escalating demands for higher performance, when they need them.”
11.7 Gbps Processing Speed
Samsung’s HBM4 allegedly delivers a consistent processing speed of 11.7 gigabits-per-second (Gbps), assumedly based on internal testing, which exceeds the industry standard of 8Gbps by approximately 46%. This represents a 1.22x increase over the maximum pin speed of 9.6Gbps of its predecessor, HBM3E. In a company statement, Samsung has stated that their HBM4’s performance can be further enhanced by up to 13Gbps, effectively mitigating data bottlenecks that intensify as AI models continue to scale up.
Offerings up to 48GB are possible in the near future
Through 12-layer stacking technology, Samsung offers HBM4 in capacities ranging from 24 gigabytes (GB) to 36GB. The company will also keep its capacity options aligned with future customer timelines by utilising 16-layer stacking, which will expand offerings to up to 48GB.
Samsung plans to broaden the scope of its technical partnership with key partners, based on close discussions with global GPU manufacturers and hyperscalers focused on next-generation ASIC development.
Future Predictions
Samsung anticipates that its HBM sales will more than triple in 2026 compared to 2025, and thus is proactively expanding its HBM4 production capacity. Following the successful introduction of HBM4 to market, sampling for HBM4E is expected to begin in the second half of 2026, while custom HBM samples will start reaching customers in 2027, according to their respective specifications.
