[Edaily SOYEON KIM Reporter Choi Oh-hyun] Ahn Hyun, Executive Vice President of Development at SK hynix, emphasized, “Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is just beginning,” adding, “AI technology is spreading at a pace humanity has never experienced before, and the cycle for the technology to become mainstream is getting shorter and shorter.” He continued, “I believe you will agree that, through the spread of AI, memory has become Korea’s premier industry, and a golden opportunity has arrived for South Korea.”

President Ahn made these remarks during his keynote speech at the Semiconductor Expo (SEDEX) 2026, held at COEX in Seoul on the 14th. His keynote address was titled “The Direction of Memory Innovation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”

President Ahn presented remarks regarding AI demand that had emerged during earnings conference calls by global Big Tech companies. He noted that the AI infrastructure is expected to grow approximately 20-fold by 2030, projecting an average annual growth rate of 109% from this year through 2030.

He said, “The data center and semiconductor industries cannot proceed one step at a time at the same pace as in the past,” adding, “Memory development, standardization, and securing production capacity must be prepared in advance, even before AI demand materializes.”

He proposed “3D-stacked DRAM” as the next-generation AI memory following High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM). President Ahn explained, “SRAM is currently the fastest memory available,” adding, “A new tier of memory must be developed to bridge the gap between SRAM and HBM.” He then identified 3D-stacked DRAM as the next-generation AI memory that bridges HBM and SRAM.

3D-stacked DRAM is a product that connects the processor and memory by placing DRAM directly on top of a graphics processing unit (GPU) and connecting them via through-silicon vias (TSVs). President Ahn said, “If it is combined with advanced packaging that enables direct connection between the processor and memory—thereby increasing bandwidth, reducing power consumption, and managing heat—it can evolve into a new AI memory solution.” He explained that this represents a new memory tier capable of increasing bandwidth by tens of times and resolving performance bottlenecks in AI models.

He also predicted that the share of custom HBM would grow even further following the adoption of HBM. “Custom HBM is built on a base die that incorporates customer requirements,” he said, adding, “SK hynix is well-prepared, leveraging our core technologies through close collaboration with customers.” He added, “While we will continue to produce both custom HBM and standard HBM in parallel, custom HBM will expand in the long term.”

Furthermore, SK hynix highlighted High-Bandwidth Flash (HBF) as a new memory tier bridging HBM and SSDs. Like HBM, HBF is a next-generation NAND solution that utilizes Through-Silicon Via (TSV) technology and logic processes. President Ahn emphasized, “HBF’s capacity and bandwidth make it particularly well-suited for AI inference, which relies heavily on repeated reads of large volumes of data.”

President Ahn stated, “In the AI era, memory is no longer just a component in and of itself,” adding, “To enable AI to grow and evolve further, we are solving problems by creating new AI memory, starting with HBM.” He continued, “Memory has become South Korea’s premier industry, and this represents a golden opportunity.”