According to a report by a South Korean media outlet, MT.co,kr, it is reported that SK Hynix has secured a deal to exclusively supply NVIDIA its latest HBM3e memory that will be used to power next-generation Blackwell GPUs. This will help SK Hynix become a lead semiconductor supplier in the AI industry.
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HBM3E is included in B100, the next-generation AI flagship graphics processing unit (GPU) that NVIDIA plans to release around the second quarter of next year. The market predicts that B100 will be a more powerful AI game changer than H100, Nvidia's current highest-spec GPU. This product is mainly used in AI cloud and supercomputing. NVIDIA accounts for more than 90% of the AI ??GPU market share.
NVIDIA originally planned to release the B100 in the fourth quarter of next year, but is said to have moved up the release date to the end of the second quarter due to a rapid increase in demand. As the B100 release date was pushed forward, SK Hynix also became busy. As the quality test schedule, which was originally expected to be in the beginning of the second quarter, has been pushed back to the first quarter, we are focusing on increasing yield. It is expected that the quantity for quality testing will be transferred to NVIDIA as early as January.
MT.co.kr (Machine Translated)
The report states that NVIDIA has exclusively selected SK Hynix's HBM3e memory owing to its mass production quality. These chips will be handed to NVIDIA early next year for the company to begin the final qualification testing. As for the product which is going to be powered by the new DRAM, it is said that NVIDIA's flagship next-gen GPU, the B100 "Blackwell" will be utilizing it. The B100 is also said to have originally been planned for Q4 2024 but NVIDIA will now be launching the chips earlier in Q2 2024.
On a similar note, it is also stated that NVIDIA had been developing Blackwell B100 GPUs since June 2023 and already received initial samples of HBM3e memory from SK Hynix back in August.
Image Source: NVIDIA
The reason for this change is said to be the surging demand for AI GPUs and the requirement for more powerful AI solutions. NVIDIA already accounts for over 90% of the AI GPU market with its Ampere A100 and Hopper H100 GPUs and Blackwell B100 is going to further cement the green team as the undisputed leader of the AI world. The source also goes on to quote a source within the semiconductor industry who states that B100 is impossible to sell without HBM3E.
An official in the semiconductor industry said, “Without HBM3E, NVIDIA cannot sell B100,” and added, “Once the quality is met, a contract is only a matter of time.”
MT.co.kr (Machine Translated)
A recent investor roadmap confirmed that NVIDIA has Blackwell B100 GPU positioned for a launch in 2024. Even the follow-up to B100, the X100 GPU, is mentioned for a 2025 launch. This shows that NVIDIA is indeed accelerating the pace of its AI GPUs and wants to remain in the leading position in the coming years.”
