The chip is used in Samsung's high-bandwidth memory modules that it's been trying to sell to NVIDIA. However, approval still eludes Samsung's HBM while NVIDIA continues to source the bulk of these modules for its AI chips from SK Hynix.
Samsung's been trying hard to win orders from NVIDIA
Young Hyun Jun leads Samsung's Device Solutions division. Korean media is reporting that he took a sample of the latest 1b DRAM to show NVIDIA at its HQ. NVIDIA had previously asked Samsung to improve the design of its 1b DRAM.
The company wanted to start manufacturing its HBM with 1b DRAM but couldn't due to yield and overheating issues. These are believed to be the primary reasons why despite promising comments, NVIDIA has still not approved Samsung's HBM3E chips.
NVIDIA is the world's leading supplier of AI accelerators right now. It has orders worth hundreds of billions of dollars from some of the world's top tech companies. So it needs a lot of high-bandwidth memory modules and winning an order would be highly lucrative for Samsung.
Samsung previously used 1a DRAM in its HBM3E modules and intended to skip 1b DRAM, opting to go straight to 1c DRAM for its HBM4 modules. NVIDIA is said to have requested that Samsung integrate 1b DRAM and with the top exec now personally making the trip to California to show NVIDIA what it has created, there's cautious optimism that Samsung may finally win orders from the company.
