SK Hynix and Micron made back-to-back AI memory announcements this week, cementing the memory chip market—centered on HBM (High Bandwidth Memory)—as a core part of the AI industry.
COMPUTEX 2026 · The Memory War
HBM Becomes the Front Line of the AI Industry
In a single week, SK hynix and Micron unveiled next-generation AI memory — 12-high HBM stacks chasing more bandwidth, capacity and efficiency — as data center operators scramble for chips that are already sold out through 2026.
48GB
SK hynix HBM4E
36GB
Micron HBM4
+20%
Power efficiency gain
The HBM Market Is Tripling
Estimated market size — already sold out through 2026
~3× growth in three years — and SK hynix, Micron & Samsung have all effectively sold out 2026 capacity.
SK hynix HBM4E
12-high stack, 48GB capacity
16 Gbps per pin peak speed
Advanced MR-MUF: thermal resistance −17%
World's-first HBM4 completed (Sept 2025)
Micron HBM4 + Portfolio
12-high stack, 36GB capacity
2.6× LLM inference per 2× bandwidth
256GB SOCAMM2 & 256GB DDR5 RDIMM
HBM4 mass production from Q2 2026
A Trillion-Dollar Scramble
$1T+
Both crossed a $1 trillion market cap in May 2026
$29.4B
SK hynix's planned U.S. Nasdaq listing raise
Operators offer prepaid investment and long-term contracts to lock in supply — while tight capacity, rising prices and Samsung's rivalry keep the pressure on.
Continue reading The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.
Already purchased? Sign in ✓ Signed in — this article isn’t included in your current plan.Unlocking the full article…