HBM4 Drives 30% Price Premium, Boosts AI Server Demand

TrendForce has released a new report highlighting the significant impact of the HBM4 specification on the manufacturing landscape. The increased number of I/O interfaces in HBM4 has led to more complex chip designs and larger wafer areas, driving up production costs. This complexity has resulted in an anticipated price premium of over 30% for HBM4, surpassing the 20% premium seen with the HBM3e. The adoption of logic chip architectures by some suppliers to enhance performance has further contributed to the overall increase in costs, making HBM4 a more exclusive and expensive technology.

The HBM4 specification, driven by the demand for AI servers, has seen active development from three major manufacturers. The increased I/O interfaces and complex chip designs have necessitated larger wafer areas, pushing up production costs. Additionally, some suppliers have adopted logic chip architectures to improve performance, further driving up costs. These factors have collectively raised the manufacturing threshold, making HBM4 a premium product with an anticipated price premium of over 30%.

Leading AI chip manufacturers, such as NVIDIA and AMD, have already announced products that will utilize HBM4. NVIDIA's latest Rubin GPU and AMD's MI400 are set to feature HBM4, which offers double the I/O interfaces compared to previous generations, maintaining a data transfer rate of 8.0Gbps or higher. This means that HBM4 can transmit data at twice the volume of previous generations at the same transfer speed, significantly enhancing performance.

Currently, HBM3e base die uses a memory architecture that acts as a simple signal converter. In contrast, SK hynix and Samsung's HBM4 base die, developed in collaboration with wafer foundries, adopt a logic chip architecture. This architecture integrates HBM with SoC, accelerating data transmission paths, reducing latency, and enhancing stability in high-speed data transmission environments. This advancement is expected to further drive the adoption of HBM4 in the market.

TrendForce predicts that the HBM market will see a total shipment volume exceeding 30 billion Gb by 2026, with HBM4's market share steadily increasing. By the second half of 2026, HBM4 is expected to surpass HBM3e series products and become the market leader. SK hynix is anticipated to maintain its leadership position with over half of the market share, while Samsung and Micron will need to improve their product yield and production capacity to compete effectively in the HBM4 market.