Samsung (SSNLF.US) HBM4 yield broke through the 80% mark and officially entered the “golden yield” stage. Revenue is expected to triple in the third quarter

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to reports, the yield of Samsung Electronics (SSNLF.US) sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory HBM4 has risen sharply from less than 60% at the beginning of mass production to around 80%, reaching the year-end target previously set by the company ahead of schedule. According to reports, the industry refers to 80% yield as the “golden yield”. This breakthrough means that Samsung has taken a key step in the profitability and large-scale supply of HBM4.

In February of this year, Samsung was the first in the world to launch mass production and supply of HBM4, but the initial yield was less than 60%. After about half a year of process optimization, the yield achieved rapid stability. The report quoted industry insiders as saying that Samsung originally planned to achieve 80% yield by the end of 2026, but now progress is clearly ahead of schedule.

In response to the reason for the increase in yield, the report points out that Samsung's improvements in the hot-pressed non-conductive film (TC-NCF) process are an important support for improving yield; while other analysts emphasized that the increase in yield of the 1c DRAM basic chip used in HBM4 also contributed greatly.

As the “golden yield” is realized, Samsung's production capacity expansion and profit improvement expectations have increased significantly. The company made it clear that HBM4's revenue in the third quarter will more than triple month-on-month, and in the second half of the year, HBM4 will account for more than 60% of Samsung's overall HBM revenue. In terms of market share, Samsung has set an HBM market share target of around 38% by the end of the year, which is in line with its share in the DRAM sector.

Analysts believe that the expansion of HBM4 output will not only strongly support the production of Nvidia (NVDA.US)'s next-generation AI accelerator Vera Rubin, but also help major customers such as Nvidia to diversify their supply chains and get rid of excessive dependence on a single supplier.

Lee Jong-hwan, professor of systems semiconductor engineering at Sangmyung University in South Korea, said that from the perspective of big customers such as Nvidia, diversification of supply chain sources clearly has an advantage over relying on a single supplier. If Samsung can make full use of the opportunity of the expansion of HBM4 supply scale, it is expected that it will quickly consolidate its dominant position in the market.

Notably, Samsung's competitor SK Hynix (SKHY.US) is also progressing rapidly on HBM4. According to industry insiders, SK Hynix's HBM4 yield rate has also reached around 80%. With its accumulated mass production experience on multiple generations of HBM products and its unique advanced quality reflow molded underfill (MR-MUF) technology, the industry generally expects SK Hynix to successfully climb production capacity in the second half of the year.