Seoul Economic Daily reported that Samsung Electronics plans to use TSMC's 3-nanometer manufacturing process for the base dies of Nvidia's next-generation customized high-bandwidth memory, known as NVHBM.
According to the report, Nvidia requested that Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron use TSMC technology for the customized memory's logic base dies.
The arrangement would represent a departure from Samsung's conventional strategy of manufacturing both memory dies and base dies internally.
Samsung reportedly intends to retain its existing integrated manufacturing approach for other HBM products and customers. The reported manufacturing arrangement has not been independently confirmed through a formal announcement from all three companies. Reuters
Sources: Seoul Economic Daily — October 18 · Reuters — October 18
Why it matters strategically
This development is relevant to the semiconductor industry's competitive structure.
Samsung has historically promoted the advantages of controlling memory manufacturing, foundry operations, and advanced packaging capabilities.
That integrated structure can potentially reduce coordination costs and improve manufacturing optimization.
However, Nvidia's customized requirements may make standardization across suppliers more valuable than maintaining fully internal production.
If Nvidia requires a common manufacturing process for customized base dies, memory suppliers may need to adapt their manufacturing strategies to the customer's architecture.
