[E-Daily Reporter JAEMIN SONG ] As U.S. semiconductor company AMD rapidly expands its artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator business, supply opportunities for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) from SamsungElectronics and SK hynix are growing. Following NVIDIA, AMD is also ramping up production of next-generation AI semiconductors, leading to diversification in HBM demand sources. In particular, as AMD signs long-term contracts with suppliers to secure volumes, the supply capacity of domestic memory manufacturers is expected to become even more critical.

According to industry sources on the 4th, AMD announced on the 3rd (local time) that its data center segment revenue for the third quarter of this year reached approximately $8.55 billion, a 97% increase year-over-year. The growth was driven by expanded sales of its AI accelerator, Instinct, and its server central processing unit (CPU), EPYC. Total revenue also rose 45% to approximately $13.4 billion, setting a new all-time high.

AMD is also accelerating production of “Helios,” a rack-scale AI system equipped with the next-generation MI450 series AI accelerators. This move is intended to respond to growing investments in AI infrastructure by global tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI.

Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, stated during the third-quarter earnings conference call, “The third quarter marked the first quarter of revenue from the MI455X and Helios systems,” adding, “Production will increase significantly in the fourth quarter and continue to expand through 2027.”

AMD’s increased production of AI accelerators is also linked to growing demand for HBM from domestic memory manufacturers. Since AI accelerators are equipped with HBM to process large volumes of data quickly, an increase in AMD’s shipments could lead to a corresponding rise in memory supply.

SamsungElectronics has already been selected as the preferred supplier of HBM4 for AMD’s next-generation AI accelerators. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in March to expand their strategic partnership and agreed to proceed with supplying Samsung’s HBM4 to AMD’s MI455X. SamsungElectronics has also been supplying HBM3E for AMD’s existing MI350 series. Analysts suggest that AMD’s expansion of AI accelerator production is highly likely to lead to increased sales of Samsung’s HBM4.

The collaboration between the two companies extends beyond memory. SamsungElectronics and AMD are also discussing potential cooperation in next-generation DDR5 memory for servers and in the foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) sector. In essence, the growth of AMD’s data center business could present opportunities for SamsungElectronics’ semiconductor business as a whole.

SK hynix is also seeing growing opportunities to expand its HBM supply to customers beyond NVIDIA. SK hynix is strengthening its leadership in the AI memory market by expanding HBM production capacity and securing long-term supply contracts. However, specific supply volumes for AMD’s next-generation products or the share allocated to each supplier have not been disclosed.

Earlier, during his visit to South Korea last month, CEO Su identified SamsungElectronics and SK hynix as key partners for expanding the data center business and emphasized the need to increase memory production capacity. This underscores the growing importance of securing a stable HBM supply chain to keep pace with the production expansion of AI accelerator manufacturers.

In fact, AMD is utilizing long-term contracts to secure its supply chain. During this conference call, CEO Su stated, “We have entered into long-term contracts with some suppliers and customers,” adding, “Although prices for components, including memory, are rising, we are collaborating with our customers to share the cost burden.”