"SK Hynix Expected to Maintain HBM Domination Over The Next Year"

As Samsung Electronics is struggling in the field of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), SK Hynix's market dominance will be maintained over the next year.

Analysts from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI), a Bloomberg-affiliated research institute, predicted in a report titled "Samsung Electronics is unlikely to challenge SK Hynix in the HBM sector."

Samsung Electronics is currently conducting quality tests to deliver HBM3E 8th and 12th-stage products, which are HBM 5th generation, to Nvidia, a customer company, but commercialization is being delayed.The

report pointed out that unlike Samsung Electronics struggling, for SK Hynix, Nvidia's delivery performance and HBM3E yield (normal product-to-product ratio) of nearly 80% are positive factors.

Also, SK Hynix's HBM orders are booked from 2026 to 2027, and large-scale facility investments that are expected to reach KRW 16 trillion to KRW 20 trillion this year can also help expand HBM market share.

However, in the process, SK Hynix's speed of deleveraging (reducing borrowing) is expected to decrease, and it was determined that geopolitical risks, including U.S. sanctions on semiconductors with China, could negatively affect SK Hynix's HBM business.

However, he said the impact of the U.S. sanctions on China may not be significant, adding that SK Hynix's fourth-generation (HBM3) and fifth-generation HBM products are mainly used in Nvidia's high-end chips, which are already banned from selling in China.