The South Korean company SK Hynix plans to significantly increase the prices for the best memory of HBM4, increasing the cost by 70% compared to the previous version of the HBM3E. The main reason for this growth is called a higher cost of production, as well as the monopoly position of the manufacturer in the supply of HBM4.
So far, other large market participants, such as Samsung and Micron, are under development, SK Hynix has already established the release of new chips and the start of NVIDIA supply. This gave the company an advantage against the background of competitors and the ability to offer products at an inflated price, especially for orders with an early delivery.
The key factor in price was the use of the 4-nm process of the TSMC process, which is used in the basic structure of HBM4. The technology is complex and requires combining logic and memory in a single case, which additionally increases production costs.
Currently, SK Hynix is an exclusive supplier of 12-layer HBM3E chips for NVIDIA, which are used in the new graphic solutions of the Blackwell Ultra line. This strengthened the company’s positions in negotiations on the supply of HBM4 and made it possible to dictate the conditions.
