By Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – Nvidia (NASDAQ:) CEO Jensen Huang had requested reminiscence chip maker SK Hynix to convey ahead by six months the availability of its next-generation high-bandwidth reminiscence chips known as HBM4, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stated on Monday.

South Korea’s SK Hynix stated in October that it aimed to produce the chips to clients within the second half of 2025. An SK Hynix spokesperson stated on Monday that this timeline was quicker than an preliminary goal with out elaborating additional.

Huang’s request for quicker supply highlights demand for increased capability, energy-efficient chips utilized in Nvidia’s graphic processing items to develop AI expertise. Nvidia instructions greater than 80% of the worldwide AI chip market.

SK Hynix has been main a worldwide race to satisfy an explosive demand for HBM chips that assist within the processing of huge quantities of knowledge to coach AI expertise and are essential for Nvidia’s chipsets. However it’s dealing with rising competitors from rivals like Samsung Electronics (KS:) and Micron (NASDAQ:).

SK Hynix, which plans to produce the newest 12-layer HBM3E to an unidentified buyer this yr, additionally plans to ship samples of extra superior 18-layer HBM3E early subsequent yr, its CEO, Kwak Noh-Jung, stated on the SK AI SUMMIT 2024 in Seoul.

Samsung stated final week that it was making progress on a provide cope with an unidentified main buyer after affected by delays, including that it was in talks with main clients to provide “improved” HBM3E merchandise within the first half of subsequent yr. Samsung additionally plans to provide the next-generation HBM4 merchandise within the second half of subsequent yr.

Shares of SK Hynix jumped 5.1% whereas Samsung shares firmed 1%. The broader market was up 1.6%.

(This story has been refiled to delete the extraneous phrase ‘for’ in paragraph 3)