①SK Hynix has completed price and volume negotiations with NVIDIA for the supply of HBM4 next year; ②The supply price of its HBM4 will be more than 50% higher than that of HBM3E, exceeding expectations by over 10%.
The科创板日报reported on November 5 (edited by Song Zijiao) that SK Hynix has completed price and quantity negotiations with NVIDIA for the supply of HBM4 next year. A source familiar with SK Hynix stated, “The supply price of HBM4 will be more than 50% higher than that of HBM3E.” The unit price of HBM4 supplied by SK Hynix to NVIDIA has been confirmed at approximately $500 per unit in the mid-range (above $500). Previously, industry expectations were that SK Hynix’s HBM4 unit price would be around $500, but the actual delivery price exceeded expectations by more than 10%, and is over 50% higher than the current supply price of HBM3E (approximately $370).
SK Hynix is NVIDIA's primary HBM supplier. According to a recent report published by research firm Counterpoint Research, SK Hynix accounted for the top position in the global HBM market in the second quarter of this year with a 62% share of shipments, followed by Micron Technology (21%) and Samsung Electronics (17%).
According to SK Hynix's product roadmap, its HBM4 was developed and moved into mass production in September, with shipments set to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. Sales are planned to expand fully next year.
South Korean media reported that SK Hynix and NVIDIA have finalized the price and supply negotiations for HBM4, and SK Hynix’s performance next year is expected to reach an all-time high. This is due to the soaring prices of both HBM and general-purpose DRAM amid the global expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
SK Hynix disclosed its latest earnings report last week, showing a record-breaking surge in revenue and profit for the third quarter. In its earnings report, SK Hynix stated: “Due to increased investments by customers in artificial intelligence infrastructure, demand across the entire memory sector has grown significantly. As a result, SK Hynix has once again surpassed the previous quarter’s highest performance levels, driven by increased sales of high-value products such as 12-layer HBM3E and DDR5 for servers.”
In the third quarter, SK Hynix achieved revenue of KRW 24.45 trillion (approximately CNY 121.27 billion), representing a 39% year-over-year increase.
In the third quarter, SK Hynix achieved an operating profit of KRW 11.38 trillion (approximately CNY 56.45 billion), marking a 62% year-over-year increase. This marks the first time in SK Hynix’s corporate history that its operating profit has exceeded KRW 10 trillion.
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is a core component for AI applications. With this type of memory chip significantly enhancing data processing speeds in data centers, demand for it has surged rapidly.
To meet the growing demand for data processing, HBM has undergone multiple rounds of iteration, with HBM4 being the sixth-generation product. Relevant product standards were officially established by JEDEC in April 2025. Key innovations include doubling the interface width from 1,024 bits to 2,048 bits, targeting bandwidth exceeding 2 TB/s, and supporting up to 16 layers of stacking with a capacity of up to 64 GB. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have all delivered samples to customers and plan to move into mass production between 2025 and 2026.
HBM4 is regarded as a significant technological leap forward, with its 2048-bit interface and maximum 16-layer stacking promising substantial improvements in bandwidth and capacity. Industry players, particularly Samsung and SK Hynix, are exploring ways to connect HBM stacks more directly to processor chips, such as GPUs, and even studying the use of photonics technology in intermediary layers to achieve ultimate transmission speeds and energy efficiency. This deep integration may blur the boundaries between logic chips and memory chips, enabling closer integration between the two.
SK Hynix declined to comment on customer-related matters.
