Micron’s ‘amazing performance’ – ‘The world’s first mass production of the 5th generation HBM’ SK Hanik… Semiconductor Spring Breeze Blows｜Dong-A Ilbo

Micron. AP/News

Among major memory companies, Micron Technology, known as the ‘weather glass of the memory market’ for being the first to announce its earnings, announced on the 25th (local time) its fiscal fourth quarter (June-August) results which exceeded the expectations of the market. On the 26th, SK Hynix also announced the world’s first mass production of 5th generation 12-layer high bandwidth memory (HBM), putting an end to the ‘semiconductor winter theory’ that was spreading in the market and creates a ‘long-awaited spring’. a breeze’.

● Micron “Best position in history”

On this day, Micron announced in its earnings announcement for the fourth quarter of this fiscal year after the market closed that its sales recorded $7.75 billion (about KRW 10.3 trillion), an increase of 93% compared to the same period last year. This number exceeds Wall Street’s expectation of $7.66 billion. Earnings per share were also $1.18, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $1.11. The sales forecast for the first quarter of the next financial year, the next quarter, was also presented at $8.7 billion, which is much higher than the previous estimate ($8.3 billion).

Along with the performance announcement on this day, Micron officially announced that this year’s and next year’s supplies are already sold out, saying, “As demand for HBM exceeds supply, product prices are being increased and long-term contracts are being signed.” “We enter fiscal 2025 in the best position in Micron’s history,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron “We expect record first quarter sales and significantly improved profitability in 2025, leading to significant sales growth .” “We expect to achieve a record,” he said.

This forecast is contrary to a previous report by global investment bank Morgan Stanley, which predicted that the semiconductor industry would peak in the third quarter of this year (July-September) and then sales growth would slow down from the fourth quarter (October-December) . Accordingly, Micron’s stock price increased 14.75% from the previous day after the market closed, reaching $109.9 per share.

● SK Hynix “The world’s first mass production of HBM3E 12-speed”

A view of the SK Hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. News 1

SK Hynix, which ranks first in global HBM market share, also announced that it has started mass production of the world’s first new 12-layer ‘HBM3E’, the 5th generation HBM. Initially, the 12-layer product was targeted for mass production in the fourth quarter of this year (October to December), but given the growing demand in the market, the timetable was once again advanced to mass production in the third quarter of May this year (July). . to September).

The 12-layer HBM3E is the product with the largest capacity (36 gigabytes) among existing HBM products, and is scheduled to be delivered to customers such as NVIDIA within the year. SK Hynix said, “Following the launch of the world’s first generation HBM (HBM1) in 2013 for the first time in the world, we are the only company to have developed and supplied every generation liner to the market up to the 5th generation, ” adding, “We’re launching a new 12-layer product that meets the growing expectations of AI companies.” He emphasized, “We are the first to succeed in mass production and maintain an unrivaled position in the AI ​​memory market.”

In February this year, Samsung Electronics successfully developed the 12-layer HBM3E product for the first time in the world and announced that it would start mass production in the second quarter (April to June), but lost out to SK Hynix. Although SK Hynix leads the way in the fast-growing HBM market, Samsung Electronics and Micron are expected to continue to catch up. According to Bank of America, the annual HBM market share this year is expected to be 55% for SK Hynix, 39% for Samsung Electronics, and 6% for Micron.

On this day, due to Micron’s good performance and SK Hynix’s successful mass production of 12-layer HBM3E, SK Hynix’s stock price rose 9.44% from the previous day to 180,900 won, and Samsung Electronics’ stock price rose 4.02% to 64,700 won.

Reporter Kwak Do-young now@donga.com