Samsung wants to start supplying memory to Nvidia ahead of competitors. Is this a risk for them?

Samsung Electronics is preparing to be the first to start shipping high-speed HBM memory chips for the next generation of Nvidia chips, The Korea Economic Daily reported, citing sources. News of Samsung's readiness to start production triggered a drop in shares of rivals SK Hynix and Micron Technology. However, the total shortage of memory chips for AI will allow all three key players to maintain their positions in the market, William Blair believes.

According to sources of The Korea Economic Daily, Samsung intends to start production of HBM4 chips for Nvidia supplies in February, ahead of competitors. The same timeline was given by a Bloomberg interlocutor. According to him, Samsung sent Nvidia the first samples for testing in September 2025, and now the test is in the final stage.

Shares of Samsung jumped at the opening of trading in Seoul by almost 3%, but later lost all the gain and ended the session at the level of yesterday's close. At the same time, the securities of South Korean SK Hynix, the main supplier of memory chips for Nvidia, fell by 4%. Quotes of Micron Technology, the American manufacturer of HBM4, at the opening of trading in the U.S. at the moment lost more than 3%.

SK Hynix and Micron started shipping HBM4 to customers as early as 2025. But in the third quarter of last year, Nvidia raised the memory chip bandwidth requirements for its new Rubin platform. That required the three major HBM vendors to tweak their chips, and Samsung entered the race, analyst firm TrendForce reported.

Samsung's successes do not threaten Micron and SK Hynix sales, says William Blair analyst Sebastien Nagy. According to him, the shortage of supply at all three key HBM manufacturers against the background of a frenzy of demand for high-speed memory from developers of AI-processors will limit the redistribution of market shares, writes Barron's. The entire volume of Micron's supplies for the current year has already been contracted, the expert emphasized. SK Hynix completed negotiations with major customers on HBM supplies for 2026 last fall.

Wall Street analysts have similar positions on all three key memory market players: according to FactSet, the consensus for Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron is Buy. For each issuer, there are dozens of buy recommendations (Buy or Overweight ratings) and only one sell recommendation (Sell or Underweight ratings).

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor