Samsung in a hurry after losing big AI chip order: plans to use rival SK Hynix’s tech instead

According to media reports, a number of people familiar with the matter revealed that Samsung Electronics plans to adopt the technology of rival SK Hynix as the chip manufacturing race escalates.

The current market demand for HBM (high bandwidth storage) chips is growing, however, compared with rivals SK Hynix and Micron, Samsung has lost the big single of NVIDIA.

Analysts generally believe that the reason why Samsung lost the big single, to a large extent, from its insistence on the use of non-conductive film (NCF) chip process; and SK Hynix use of bulk reflow molding bottom filling (MR-MUF) process, which effectively solves the drawbacks of NCF technology.

Analysts believe that Samsung HBM3 chip yield performance is not ideal, only to maintain the level of 10-20%; in contrast, its competitors SK Hynix HBM3 yield up to 60-70%.

Inevitably, Samsung has also begun to plan to use SK Hynix used MR-MUF process, rather than previously adhere to the NCF technology.

Sources close to the matter said Samsung has recently issued a purchase order for equipment to handle MR-MUF technology, and is also negotiating with material manufacturers, including Japan's Nagase, to purchase MUF materials.

But despite this, due to the need for more testing and optimization, Samsung's chips using this technology will not be ready for mass production until next year at the earliest.