Demand for high-bandwidth memory increases as AI grows, which favors China. The USA is not happy.
High bandwidth memory (HBM) is a stack of chips memory, small components that store data. Can store more information and transmit data faster than older technologycalled DRAM (dynamic random access memory), explains the .
Typically, HBM chips are typically used in graphics cards, high-performance computing systems, data centers, and autonomous vehicles.
But, more importantly, they are essential for the development of AI, namely generative AI, which are powered by AI processors. “The processor and memory are two essential components of AI. Without memory, it’s like having a brain with logic but no memory,” he explains. Dan Hutchesonvice president of TechInsights, a research organization specializing in chips.
According to Hutcheson, the speed of sending data is essential for AI. “It’s like the difference between a two-lane highway and a hundred-lane highway. There are no traffic jams”, he explains.
The three main companies that dominate the HBM chip market are South Korean Hynix, which represented 50% of the market in 2022, Samsung, also South Korean, with 40% of the market share of this product, and the American Micron, which wants to increase its market share to between 20% and 25% by 2025.
Over the course of three years, US President Joe Biden went from these chips to China. Now, the president announced, at the beginning of this month, another package of measures that block the export of this chip to the Asian country.
CNN also explains that the unit selling price of HBM is several times higher than that of a conventional memory chip.
This happens because the height of an HBM is approximately that of six strands of hairwhich means that each layer of these standard memory chips that are stacked together also needs to be extremely thin, a feat that requires high-level manufacturing expertise known as advanced packaging.
“There are many more points of failure when trying to manufacture these devices. It’s almost like building a house of cards“, says Hutcheson.
Without the use of this technology, China’s advances in AI could stagnate.
But “what US export restrictions would do is cut off China’s access to better quality HBM in the short term,” he explains Jeffery ChiuCEO of Ansforce, a network consultancy specializing in technology, told CNN. “However, in the long term, China will continue to be able to produce them independentlyalthough with less advanced technologies”.
Although China’s ability to produce HBM currently lags behind Hynix, Samsung and Micron, it is developing its own capabilities in this area. The goal? Technological self-sufficiency.
With the even more protectionist measures promised by Trump, it will be increasingly complicated for China to be able to count on the USA. From now on, it’s everyone for themselves.
