Samsung Electronics ships HBM4E chip samples to customers; stock rises on early-mover advantage in AI memory market

Samsung began shipping samples of its 12-layer HBM4E chip to customers on Friday. The chip is more than 20% faster than its previous-generation HBM4 products and uses sixth-generation, 10-nanometer-class DRAM process technology alongside Samsung's 4-nanometer foundry logic base die.

Samsung's customers include AMD, Nvidia, and Google. The company entered the HBM3 and HBM3E markets later than rivals, which limited the volume of orders it was able to secure. Analysts noted that early movers in the HBM market tend to secure the bulk of orders, making initial market share critical.

Samsung Electronics shares rose as much as 6.5% in morning trading, compared with a 2.3% rise for the benchmark KOSPI. The gains reflected Samsung's HBM announcement and optimism over the outlook for its AI chip business, as well as Samsung being named a strategic infrastructure partner by Anthropic in its latest funding round at a post-money valuation of $965 billion.