SK Hynix forecasts AI memory chips to grow 30% annually to 2030

SK Hynix expects the global market for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, used in AI, to grow by 30% annually through 2030, a senior executive told Reuters.

The South Korean chipmaker projects that demand from cloud computing firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google will likely rise, boosting investment in AI infrastructure.

HBM, first produced in 2013, stacks memory chips vertically to save space and reduce power use, supporting the processing needs of complex AI systems.

SK Hynix estimates the HBM market could reach tens of billions of dollars by 2030, and is seeing requests from larger customers like Nvidia for increasingly customized products.

Currently, SK Hynix is Nvidia’s main HBM supplier, while Samsung and Micron provide smaller volumes.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ HBM market consolidation accelerated by AI quality requirements

The memory chip industry is experiencing a dramatic market share shift that validates SK Hynix’s optimistic projections.

Hynix now controls 62% of the HBM market compared to Samsung’s 17% and Micron’s 21%, representing a significant change from Samsung’s previous dominance 1.

This shift occurred largely because Samsung struggled to meet NVIDIA’s stringent quality specifications, while Hynix successfully delivered products that passed these critical requirements 2.

Micron’s recent breakthrough in passing NVIDIA’s quality verification for its HBM3E products and beginning mass production of 12-layer chips shows how technical competency directly translates to market access 3.

The quality barrier has become so significant that it’s reshaping decades-old market positions, with SK Hynix overtaking Samsung as the largest global DRAM supplier for the first time, capturing 36% of total market revenues 4.

2️⃣ Memory business transformation from commodity to custom solutions

The HBM market’s evolution demonstrates how AI demand is fundamentally changing the memory industry’s business model.

Micron reported record revenues of $9.3 billion with 50% sequential growth in HBM sales, showing how specialized memory products can drive exceptional financial performance compared to traditional commodity memory 5.