SK Hynix Smashes HBM4 Performance Ceiling, Sending Stock to All-Time High

TradingKey - SK Hynix announced on Friday that it has completed the development of its fourth-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4) and is fully prepared for mass production.

Following the announcement, the company's stock price surged as much as 7% intraday, setting a new historical high. In fact, SK Hynix's share price had already achieved an "eight-day winning streak" before this news release, with a cumulative gain of approximately 90% over the past year. The company's current market capitalization stands at approximately $170 billion, reflecting the market's full recognition of its leadership position in the HBM sector.

According to SK Hynix, the new-generation HBM4 has achieved significant multidimensional upgrades compared to its predecessor (HBM3E). The most critical enhancement lies in the number of data transmission channels (I/O), which has doubled from 1,024 to 2,048, directly resulting in a doubling of bandwidth.

At the same time, HBM4 operates at speeds exceeding 10 Gbps (10 gigabits per second), a performance metric that significantly surpasses the 8 Gbps specified by the JEDEC standard.

While performance has soared, HBM4's energy efficiency has improved by 40%. This means that HBM4 not only processes larger volumes of data within the same timeframe, effectively addressing data bottleneck issues, but also significantly reduces power costs for data centers.

SK Hynix estimates that in practical applications, HBM4 will enhance artificial intelligence service performance by 69%.

“HBM4, a symbolic turning point beyond the AI infrastructure limitations, will be a core product for overcoming technological challenges,” said Justin Kim, president and head of AI Infra at SK Hynix.

This R&D breakthrough reflects SK Hynix's sustained investment and "first-mover advantage" in the HBM field. Earlier this year, SK Hynix delivered the world's first 12-layer stacked HBM4 samples to customers, a timeline that significantly leads its main competitors Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics.

SK Hynix noted that "needs for high bandwidth memory for faster system speed are surging." HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), as a critical advanced storage technology, is essential for artificial intelligence (particularly large-scale training and inference scenarios), high-performance computing, and high-end graphics cards. By stacking chips and employing advanced interface technologies, it greatly alleviates the data throughput bottleneck between processors and memory, ensuring that core processors like GPUs can operate efficiently and fully unleash their computational potential.

Currently, the high-end HBM market exhibits an oligopolistic structure, primarily dominated by three giants — Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix — with exceptionally fierce technological competition and market share battles among leading manufacturers.