Against the backdrop of intensifying competition in the global semiconductor industry, SK hynix has made strategic adjustments, cutting R&D investment in CMOS image sensors (CIS) and shifting its resources and attention to the development of highly profitable high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and AI memory.
There are several key points in SK hynix's strategic shift. First, the company is cutting its CIS R&D investment, and expects to cut its production capacity by more than half to less than 7,000 12-inch wafers per month. The reason behind this adjustment is SK hynix's smaller share of the CIS market at only 4%, far behind its main competitors Sony and Samsung. Second, SK hynix transferred the memory controller team from the SoC design department to the HBM division and recruited SoC designers for the next generation of memory with integrated computing functions. This move shows the company's emphasis on HBM technology and its layout for future storage technology.
SK hynix's HBM technology has been developed to the fifth generation, the HBM3E, which is currently the highest-performing HBM product. The mass production of HBM3E not only strengthens SK hynix's competitive advantage in the AI memory market, but also reflects the company's long-term technology accumulation and innovation capabilities. HBM3E runs at speeds of up to 9.6Gbps and is capable of reading 70 billion overall parameters 35 times per second when running large language models on four HBM-powered GPUs. In addition, SK hynix has adopted the advanced MR-MUF process to improve heat dissipation performance and control warpage to ensure product stability and reliability.
Figure: SK hynix cuts R&D investment in CIS to focus on high-margin products such as HBM
According to market research, SK hynix has a market share of more than 50% in the HBM market, making it the market leader. SK hynix's leadership in the HBM market is due to its innovation in packaging technology, especially the application of MR-MUF technology, which effectively improves the heat dissipation performance of the chip, making SK hynix's HBM products stand out from the competition. With the increasing memory performance requirements of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, SK hynix's HBM products have surged, and the company has achieved significant financial growth as a result. In addition, it is reported that SK hynix and TSMC have signed an agreement to jointly develop and produce next-generation HBM, and strengthen the integration of logic with HBM, planning to adopt TSMC's advanced logic process on the base chip of HBM4.
In addition to HBM, SK hynix is also focusing on emerging growth areas such as CXL, PIM, and AI SSDs, which are attracting attention as future growth engines. CXL technology can integrate different interfaces of different devices such as CPU and memory, and easily expand memory bandwidth and capacity. PIM technology is SK hynix's intelligent semiconductor memory, which integrates a computing processor to generate and transmit data required for AI computing. AI SSDs are ultra-high-speed, high-capacity storage solutions developed by the company for AI servers and data centers.
SK hynix's strategic realignment aims to enhance the company's market competitiveness and profitability by focusing on high-margin and high-growth storage technologies. With the continuous development of AI technology and the expansion of application fields, SK hynix's strategic layout is expected to occupy a favorable position in the semiconductor market in the future.
