As the competition in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) technology intensifies, major memory chip giants are accelerating their strategic moves into the customized HBM4E sector. Samsung Electronics has significantly ramped up its R&D investments and is projected to finalize the design of its custom HBM4E by mid-2026, signaling a pivotal industry shift from standardized products towards high-performance, bespoke solutions tailored to meet specific client demands.
Samsung's custom HBM4E design is reportedly scheduled for completion between May and June 2026. This timeline underscores that while HBM4 remains predominantly a standardized offering, the industry's focus is rapidly pivoting toward the customization-centric HBM4E and the future HBM5 generation. Concurrently, rivals SK Hynix and Micron Technology are advancing on similar schedules, indicating that the leading memory manufacturers have not yet established a significant gap in their next-generation technology development progress.
To address the surging demand for customization, Samsung has adopted an aggressive strategy. It has not only established dedicated HBM teams for standardized and custom designs separately but has also recently hired an additional 250 engineers specifically for its customization projects, targeting major tech giants like Google, Meta, and NVIDIA. The industry widely anticipates that HBM4E will officially hit the market in 2027, with HBM5 expected to debut around 2029.
This strategic pivot not only reflects the explosive growth in demand for differentiated hardware within the high-performance computing market but is also set to reshape the collaboration models between memory manufacturers and foundries. As the integration of logical functions into the base die becomes increasingly complex, the adoption of advanced process technologies emerges as a critical factor. Major players are now leveraging diverse technological pathways and partnerships to secure a favorable position in the impending competition for AI computing power.
Samsung is placing a full-scale bet on customized HBM. The company is accelerating the development process for its HBM4E and has reportedly entered the back-end design phase for the base die. The overall HBM design cycle typically spans about 10 months, with the back-end design stage accounting for approximately 60% to 70% of this timeline. This phase primarily involves physical design—laying out and connecting the circuitry after the completion of the front-end Register-Transfer Level (RTL) logic development. Once this stage is finalized, the ultimate design data is sent to the foundry for tape-out and production.
The base die plays a central role in the HBM architecture, responsible for controlling data read/write operations and error correction for the stacked DRAM, directly determining overall performance and stability. Consequently, clients are increasingly demanding the integration of additional logic functions into the base die, thereby fueling the need for customized HBM solutions.
Regarding process technology, Samsung is pursuing a more significant technological leap. Reports indicate that the logic die for Samsung's HBM4, commercialized this year, utilizes a 4nm process. For its custom HBM offerings, however, the company plans to adopt an even more advanced 2nm node to achieve higher performance breakthroughs.
While Samsung pushes forward with its in-house development, SK Hynix and Micron are addressing the customization challenge by deepening their collaborations with TSMC. Citing industry insiders, reports suggest that SK Hynix and Micron are expected to complete their respective custom HBM4E developments around a similar timeframe as Samsung, with the current R&D progress of the three major players being largely on par.
SK Hynix is reportedly working closely with TSMC to develop next-generation HBM base dies and other advanced products, while also collaborating with SanDisk to promote the international standardization of High Bandwidth Flash (HBF). In terms of process selection, it is indicated that SK Hynix will utilize TSMC's 12nm process for mainstream server base dies, but will upgrade to a 3nm process for high-end designs targeting products like NVIDIA's flagship GPUs and Google's TPUs.
As for Micron, previous reports state that the company has commissioned TSMC to manufacture the base logic die for its HBM4E, aiming for production readiness in 2027. However, it is noted that Micron, in a bid to control costs, continues to adhere to existing DRAM processes, which is viewed as a structural disadvantage in the custom HBM race. Although Micron has begun exploring TSMC's processes for HBM4E, industry observers generally believe its pace in this domain may lag behind that of Samsung and SK Hynix.
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