Samsung Starts Shipping 7th-Gen AI Memory Samples, Joins Anthropic Investment

Samsung Electronics is accelerating its push into the AI memory market by becoming the first to ship samples of its 7th-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4E). This move follows closely on the heels of their industry-first production shipment of the 6th-generation product in February.

The new HBM4E samples feature a 12-layer design, incorporating DRAM chips made with a sub-10-nanometer process and a logic die produced using Samsung's own 4-nanometer foundry process. This logic die acts as a control center for data transfer and management among the stacked DRAM chips.

Samsung reports that this integration boosts the per-pin operating speed by over 20% compared to the 6th generation, reaching 14-16Gbps. The capacity has also increased by more than 30% to 48GB.

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These companies' technologies play a crucial role in supplying memory, storage, and logic chips globally.

In parallel, Samsung Electronics, along with SK Hynix and Micron, has invested in Anthropic, the U.S.-based developer of the AI model 'Claude.' Anthropic recently secured $6.5 billion in a pre-IPO funding round, valuing the company at $9.65 billion. The memory manufacturers' involvement highlights their strategic partnerships aimed at securing stable expansion of computing capabilities to meet customer demands.

This collaboration has fueled speculation that Samsung, with its own foundry capabilities for logic chips, could secure future AI chip orders from Anthropic, differentiating itself from other memory makers.

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Our partnership with these companies will be a great help in stably expanding computing capabilities according to customer needs.