Samsung Electronics began shipping samples of its 12-layer HBM4E high-bandwidth memory chips to major global customers on May 29, 2026, aiming to regain momentum in the AI memory market [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The HBM4E chips stack 12 layers of DRAM vertically, boosting speed by over 20% compared to the earlier HBM4 generation. They reach speeds of up to 16 Gigabits per second, with stable base speeds around 14 Gbps [7, 3].

The new chips offer 48GB capacity, a 30% increase from HBM4. Samsung also plans to expand offerings with 8-layer 32GB and 16-layer 64GB versions to meet customer demand [7, 3, 8]. The chips are built using Samsung's sixth-generation 10nm-class (1c DRAM) process combined with a 4nm logic base die, bringing improved energy efficiency by about 16% and reducing thermal resistance by more than 14%. These gains help lower power and cooling needs for AI data centers [3, 4, 5, 6].

Samsung’s HBM4E chips are critical components for AI accelerators used in training and deploying large language models like ChatGPT. Their main customers include AI leaders Nvidia, AMD, and Google [1, 9, 7, 4, 5]. Samsung’s executive vice president Sang Joon Hwang said, “Through our advanced manufacturing capabilities and preemptive infrastructure investments, we will continue to drive the growth of the global AI memory market” [7].

Samsung had started mass production of HBM4 memory in February 2026 before shipping these HBM4E samples in May [1, 9, 8]. The company currently holds a 22% share of the global HBM memory market as of Q4 2025, behind SK Hynix’s 57% and ahead of Micron’s 21% [8, 5]. SK Hynix plans to mass produce HBM4E chips in 2027 and supply samples in the second half of 2026 [1, 9].

Samsung is unique among major memory makers in having integrated logic chip manufacturing, which may give it an edge in producing advanced chips [8, 5]. KB Securities Research Head Jeff Kim noted that if Samsung’s HBM4E chips pass customer qualification, the supplier landscape now dominated by SK Hynix and Micron could shift to include Samsung as a major player [8].

The announcement boosted Samsung's shares, which surged as much as 6.5% during intraday trading [7, 8, 4, 5, 6]. Anthropic recently named Samsung a strategic infrastructure partner, emphasizing Samsung’s role in memory, storage, and logic supply for AI technology [4, 5, 6].

Samsung plans to proceed with customer qualification of the HBM4E chips and potential larger-scale shipments later this year.