Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) is strengthening its integrated competitiveness by independently developing dedicated software, as it leads the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market through vertical integration of memory and foundry (contract manufacturing) operations spanning design to production. The strategy is seen as a move to seize the initiative in "custom HBM," which is poised to become a core component of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors.
According to industry sources on Wednesday, Samsung Electronics' success in becoming the first in the industry to ship qualified products of the top-performing sixth-generation HBM (HBM4) was backed by the in-house development of its proprietary "Software Development Kit (SDK)." The SDK, a tool that programs HBM signals while verifying defects, is cited as a key factor that accelerated HBM4 development. Customers can also use the SDK to build memory architectures that optimize the logic operations of AI semiconductors, establishing it as a sales driver as well.
The SDK converts computer instructions into microcode based on the 0s and 1s that semiconductors can understand, and injects this into the base die (the bottom layer) of HBM4. Through this process, the base die can autonomously correct internal errors or tangled signals during data transfers. Through fifth-generation HBM (HBM3E), the base die had a fixed circuit structure, so defects could only be filtered out using designated inspection equipment. From HBM4 onward, however, the base die has been changed to a logic (computational) circuit, enabling self-diagnosis through coding.
Behind Samsung Electronics' establishment of its proprietary SDK lies its "vertical integration" structure as an integrated semiconductor company. Unlike competitors that rely on external foundries such as TSMC for base die manufacturing, Samsung Electronics produces not only the core die (memory layer) based on its memory process but also manufactures the base die directly through its foundry process. It has effectively built a "one-stop" system that handles the entire process under one roof. Within this structure, internalizing the SDK is seen as inevitable for further accelerating development speed.
Custom HBM Market Opens... Targeting Big Tech Lock-in via SDK
As the custom HBM market begins to open in earnest, the SDK is expected to become a core sales strategy for Samsung Electronics. Hyperscalers (operators of ultra-large data centers) such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are leading a wave of adoption of "custom accelerators (ASICs)" optimized for their own AI computing infrastructure. Because each ASIC has different logic operations, customized base die designs are also expanding, and the industry refers to this as custom HBM.
With general-purpose HBM, there is insufficient physical space around AI semiconductors, creating limitations in placing memory along the outer edge (shoreline). For customers, a new breakthrough to resolve data processing bottlenecks is urgently needed. To address this issue, Samsung Electronics is transforming the HBM base die into a kind of controller. This means it will play the role of directly exchanging data signals with other external memory or network devices.
If custom HBM thus establishes itself as a communications hub within AI semiconductors, even a small error could become a variable that determines overall performance. For this reason, the importance of Samsung Electronics' proprietary SDK, which diagnoses signal errors in real time, is expected to grow further. Ultimately, if big tech customers build memory systems optimized for their own chips based on the Samsung Electronics SDK ecosystem, a "lock-in" effect will arise, making it difficult for them to easily switch to another foundry.
"Samsung Electronics is making full-fledged moves to preempt the market, including expanding its custom HBM design workforce from the current level of around 50 people to 300 this year," an industry official said. "This is evidence that global semiconductor companies are giving Samsung Electronics priority consideration as a custom HBM supply partner."
