Nvidia asks South Korea’s SK Hynix to move up HGM4 memory chip deliveries

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made the request amid a shortage of advanced chips, which SK has pledged to work on with fellow market leader TSMC

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Published: 6:45pm, 4 Nov 2024

The head of AI computing giant Nvidia asked South Korea’s SK Hynix to speed up delivery of newer, more advanced HBM4 chips by six months, the head of SK Group said Monday.

Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, made the request amid a global shortage of crucial advanced chips, which SK has pledged to work on with fellow market leader TSMC of Taiwan.

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, is racing to meet explosive demand for the HBM chips that are used to process vast amounts of data to train AI, including from Nvidia, which dominates the market.

“The current pace of HBM memory technology development and product launches is impressive, but AI still requires higher-performance memory,” said Huang by video link at an AI summit in Seoul.

The firm said last month that it was on course to deliver the 12-layer HBM4 chips by the second half of 2025.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the launch of the supercomputer Gefion at the Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal in Kastrup, Denmark, on October 23. Photo: EPA-EFE

SK Hynix also said Monday that it would ship samples of the first ever 16-layer HBM3E chips by early 2025, as it seeks to bolster its growing AI chip dominance.