Samsung closes gap with SK hynix in HBM race to just 17 percentage points

The market share gap between the two dominant players in the high-bandwidth memory chip market — SK hynix and Samsung Electronics — has narrowed sharply, new data shows.

Samsung, which launched a full-scale challenge to SK hynix's dominance starting with the sixth-generation HBM4, has lifted its share to 33%, threatening the longtime leader. The company has been pushing to bring its HBM market share in line with its broader DRAM position, aiming to end SK hynix's solo run and establish a two-horse race.

SK hynix held 50% of the global HBM market by sales in the second quarter of this year, according to Counterpoint Research. While it retained the top spot, that figure marked a 15-percentage-point plunge from 64% a year earlier.

Samsung, meanwhile, more than doubled its share over the same period, rising from 15% to 33%. The gap between the two companies narrowed from 49 percentage points to 17 percentage points in just one year.

Micron, the third-largest memory chip maker, saw its HBM share slip slightly, from 21% to 18%.

SK hynix had previously built an overwhelming lead by effectively monopolizing Nvidia's supply chain with its fourth-generation HBM3 and fifth-generation HBM3E products.

Samsung struggled for the past two years after entering Nvidia's supply chain late following HBM3, but reignited the competition this year by leading with HBM4, a product with significantly improved performance.

At its second-quarter earnings conference call in July, Samsung expressed strong confidence in its HBM outlook, saying it expected to secure a share of the HBM market equal to its overall DRAM market share in the second half of this year.

Samsung held 39% of the global DRAM market by sales in the second quarter, keeping it at the top of the industry, according to Counterpoint Research. With its HBM share rising to 33% in the same quarter as expected, the company is closing in on that target.

As the HBM market shifts toward next-generation products, the battle between the two companies for supremacy is expected to intensify further.

Counterpoint Research projected that Samsung's market share will continue to grow as it ramps up HBM4 shipments, gradually cracking SK hynix's dominant position and sharpening the fight for market leadership.

Kim Jae-jun, executive vice president of Samsung's memory chip division, said at the second-quarter earnings call that "customer demand for HBM4 is expanding rapidly in line with the ramp-up pace in the second half," adding that "more than 60% of total HBM sales in the second half of this year will come from HBM4."

SK hynix, for its part, remains confident it can defend the top position. The company said the competitive strengths it has built up — spanning product performance, mass production yield, quality and customer trust — are "differentiated factors unique to SK hynix that cannot be secured in a short period of time." Having secured an early foothold in Nvidia's supply chain and established HBM market leadership, SK hynix is leaning on its deep customer relationships as a key differentiator.

Kim Ki-tae, SK hynix's executive vice president in charge of HBM sales and marketing, said at the second-quarter conference call in July that "HBM4 competitiveness is only complete when it encompasses not only the ability to deliver the performance customers require, but also the capability to supply it at scale with stable yield and quality" — an indirect signal of the company's entrenched partnership with Nvidia.