Nvidia CEO shoots down Samsung's HBM failure report

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attends an event at Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan June 4, 2024. [YONHAP/REUTERS]

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the verification process for Samsung Electronics’ high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips is “not done,” leaving room for the chips to still land on its AI processors.

“We just have to do the engineering,” Huang was quoted as saying to reporters at the Computex event in Taipei on Tuesday, adding that the Korean firm's chip hasn’t failed any qualification tests. “It’s not done yet. We have to be patient.”

When asked about a recent Reuters report citing multiple anonymous sources that claimed Samsung’s HBM chips, the premium type of dynamic random-access memory chips essential for AI processors, failed Nvidia's verification test, Huang said “There is no story there."

Unlike its crosstown rival SK hynix, Samsung Electronics has not yet succeeded in supplying its HBM chips to Nvidia, which controls approximately 90 percent of the market.

While Huang broadcast positive signals about Samsung’s HBM chips at a recent developer event, such as calling Samsung an “extraordinary” company and leaving a “Jensen approved” signature on its latest HBM chip product, Reuters reported that both the fourth and fifth chip generations — the HBM3 and HBM3E — failed the verification process due to heating issues.

Samsung instantly released a rebuttal, saying its testing process with clients is going as planned.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]