SK hynix plans to finalize next year's supply agreement for the high-bandwidth memory chips that are critical to artificial intelligence in the first half of this year, according to the chipmaker's CEO Kwak Noh-jung.
“This year’s HBM supply volume has already sold out, and we plan to finalize consultations with customers for the 2026 volume in the first half of this year,” Kwak said at the company’s general shareholders meeting at its headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday.
Kwak added that due to the long production cycle and high investment costs associated with HBM, the company opts for advance volume agreements with clients to enhance sales predictability.
SK hynix, the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips after Samsung, leads the HBM market, supplying fifth-generation 12-layer HBM3E chips to tech giant Nvidia. HBM is a critical component for the graphics processing units that power generative AI systems like ChatGPT.
The chipmaker said last week that it has shipped samples of the next-generation 12-layer HBM4 to major customers, with plans for mass production in the second half of this year.
At the meeting, Kwak expressed confidence in the continued growth of the AI chip market, despite a prolonged economic slump.
“Uncertainty is high with the continued downturn in the global economic growth outlook, but big tech companies are ramping up investments to secure leadership in AI," he said. "With the increase in graphics processing units and application-specific integrated circuits, we expect an explosive rise in HBM demand.”
He added that the industry expects the HBM market to expand 8.8-fold and the enterprise solid-state drive market to grow approximately 3.5-fold this year, compared to 2023.
Kwak played down concerns that low-cost AI models like DeepSeek could reduce demand for high-performance AI memory chips such as HBM4.
“I don’t see DeepSeek reducing demand for HBM,” he said. “With the emergence of AI models like DeepSeek, the entry of new startups into the market will accelerate, and as high-quality AI services increase, demand for AI chips will increase more quickly.”
Kwak also emphasized the company’s flexibility in managing HBM production, particularly between HBM3E and HBM4. “Since both products use the same DRAM platform, we can respond flexibly based on demand,” he said. “We will continue close consultations with our customers leading up to the mass production of HBM4 in the second half of the year.”
He also unveiled plans to begin mass production of system-on-chip advanced memory modules, or SOCAMM, a DRAM-based memory module tailored to AI servers and data centers.
“We are working with key customers to proactively respond to expected demand growth in the SOCAMM market for AI servers,” said Kwak. “Development is underway with the goal of mass production this year.”
At the meeting on Thursday, Kwak was reappointed as an internal director, and SK Square CEO Han Myung-jin was appointed as a new external director.
Meanwhile, Han Ae-ra, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University Law School, was elected as the company's new board chair, becoming the first woman to hold the post.
sahn@heraldcorp.com
