By Adam Clark

Samsung Electronics said Friday it has shipped the first samples of the latest high-bandwidth memory chips to its customers. The move lays down the gauntlet for Micron Technology but shouldn't be much of an issue for the highflying stock.

Samsung said it has shipped the "industry's first 12-layer HBM4E" chips, which it said represent a more than 20% improvement in data-processing speed and a more than 30% increase in capacity from the previous generation. Its shares rose 5.8% in local trading in South Korea.

"Samsung plans to begin mass production for HBM4E aligned with customer schedules, following initial sample shipments and optimization," the company said in a statement.

Micron is the chief rival of South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix in making HBM chips, which are crucial for the latest AI chips from the likes of Nvidia. All three are making a grab for the lucrative market.

Luckily, there's more than enough demand to go around for all three companies. Analysts at BNP Paribas expect the total addressable market for HBM chips to more than double this year to around $76 billion, before rising to $156 billion in 2027.

Micron is likely to be able to raise prices as much as its rivals can -- it has said all its HBM4 capacity is already sold out for 2026.

SK Hynix held 57% of the global HBM market share by revenue at the end of 2025, compared with 22% for Samsung and 21% for Micron, according to Counterpoint Research.

Micron stock has entered the circle of big winners in the chip market -- Samsung's news is unlikely to change that.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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May 29, 2026 04:21 ET (08:21 GMT)

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